


Operation Blue Bananas

by boombashkas



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Jason is a Dork, Jercy brotp is perfection, M/M, Nico is clueless, Percy tries to help, Slow Build, plenty of other characters here and there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-30
Updated: 2014-08-12
Packaged: 2018-02-06 21:01:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 66,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1872330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boombashkas/pseuds/boombashkas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Jason had been using his brain, he would have called it off the second Percy called it 'Operation Blue Bananas'. In fact, if he had had any sense whatsoever, he wouldn't have asked for Percy's help in the first place. However, as certain love gods and goddesses will tell you, love tends to mess with your mind. </p><p>Now Jason just has to try to make sure it doesn't make him completely lose it.</p><p>(In which Jason is lovesick, Percy is his wingman, and Nico is just plain confusing.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Green Eyes, Blue Skies

Percy’s cleaning up the back of his closet at camp when he sees them.

They’re buried underneath a pile of camp clothes so old Percy’s sure they’re at least two sizes too small for him now. He shoves the clothes aside and, yup, they’re there. Dusty and faded, but they’re there.

Three Mythomagic cards.

He has no idea how they’ve gotten here. He doesn’t play Mythomagic and neither does Tyson. The only people he knows who do are Nico and Frank. Nico doesn’t even really spend much time in this cabin and even though Frank does, he’s pretty sure these aren’t Frank’s – he’s only known Frank for about five months and these are obviously _much_ older.

Not to mention, both of those boys are kind of obsessively possessive of their Mythomagic cards. They wouldn’t just throw them around like this. Especially not when one of them is _a Poseidon card._

Percy’s a complete novice when it comes to Mythomagic (he’s so bad at it, it actually makes Frank, a usually patient person, want to tear his hair out) but even he knows the Poseidon card is pretty freaking valuable. One of the only cards more precious is…

Oh, no way. A Zeus card too? What the hell? Percy picks it up and stares at it. What next? A Hades card?

He looks at the last one. It’s face down. _No way…_

He picks it up and turns it around. Hades.

 _Well,_ he says, peering at the cards of the Big Three, _this is weird._

If it had been anyone other than Percy, they would probably think this was symbolic in some way. That maybe he should go show it to Jason and Nico and talk about how maybe it wasn’t a coincidence. Go to Annabeth and try to figure out where the cards even came from.

But this is Percy, so the only thing he thinks about before pocketing them is: _Let’s go see who’s ready to pay me the most drachmas for these cards._

~*~

He doesn’t get to sell the cards to anyone, though, because as he’s making his way to the Hephaestus cabin to ask Leo how much these cards would go for these days, Jason intercepts him.

“Percy!” he practically shouts in his ear. “Dude!”

“Jason,” Percy says, “Also dude.”

Jason just grabs his shoulders and looks at him with a slightly crazy glint in his eyes. Percy feels a little scared, if he’s going to be honest.

“You have to help me,” Jason says.

“Do I get a choice?”

“No,” Jason replies, and then bodily grabs him and throws him into the Zeus cabin.

The windows are shuttered and it’s almost pitch dark inside. Zeus’s gigantic statue glares down at Percy and the only sound is thunder rumbling throughout the cabin. Jason slams the door shut and advances on him.

“Well, this feels vaguely sexual assault-y,” Percy comments.

Jason doesn’t look like he’s calmed down at all but he does roll his eyes at Percy like he always does, and opens one of the windows. “Please,” he says as he struggles with the window frame, “I’m not into guys.”

“Yes, you are,” Percy reminds him.

Jason pauses like he just remembered. “Oh, yeah. Well, whatever, I’m not into you.” He opens the window as wide as it goes and then turns around to look at Percy. “We have a problem.”

Percy flops down on one of the bunks. “Okay. What is it?”

Jason takes a deep breath as if to steady himself and moves to sit on the bed opposite Percy’s. Percy’s curious – he’s never seen Jason look this panicked, not even when they were drowning in that stupid nympho-whatever with Piper.

“Promise not to tell anyone?” Jason asks.

“Well, duh,” Percy answers. He was one of the first people Jason had confided in with his Big Secret, as it had been known back then. A lot of their friends knew by now but Jason still says he trusts Percy the most about this kind of stuff. Which sounds all nice and sweet and brotherly but all it means in reality is that Percy has to slump around and suffer through Jason going on and on and _on_ about Nico’s hair and eyes and smile and _oh did you see him practicing in the arena today, he’s_ really _good, isn’t he?_

Percy keeps telling Jason to go for it. Nico was gay too – that had been revealed as a huge punch in Percy’s face when he had found out that Nico had actually _had a crush on him all along_. Nico’s completely over Percy by now and Percy’s convinced he likes Jason now.

The only problem is convincing Jason of the same thing. Nico doesn’t even know Jason’s gay yet. Jason has some stupid reason for not telling him. He’s explained it to Percy tons of times but Percy still doesn’t get it. To him, it’s pretty simple. Nico likes Jason, Jason likes Nico, let’s get them together already.

It almost made him want to roll his eyes and say, “ _Boys_. So dumb.”

Jason was saying something. Stupid ADHD.

“Wait, can you start from the beginning?” Percy interrupts. “I wasn’t listening – ADHD acting up.”

Jason glares at him but it was half-hearted. “I’m not going to repeat it all over again,” he mumbles. “Basically, long story short,” he pauses, taking a deep breath, “Nico – Nico likes you.”

Percy blinks at him. It takes him a moment to process it. He’s gotten momentarily distracted by a butterfly fluttering by the window.

Then he realizes what Jason has said, and a feeling like _oh no not again_ starts in the pit of his stomach.

“Oh, no,” he says, “Not again.”

Jason glares at him, and this time it isn’t half-hearted. “Yes again,” he almost growls. “Percy, what the hell, man? I thought you were on my side!”

“I am!” Percy cries. Thunder crackles overhead, as if responding to Jason’s anger. “You can’t seriously think I had anything to do with this.”

Jason glares at him for half a second longer, and then seems to be drained of energy. “I know,” he says, rubbing his face. “I know you wouldn’t. But I just…” He sighs. “What am I supposed to do now?”

Percy blinks at him. So this is a disaster. Not because Nico likes him again, because now that he thinks about it, he’s pretty sure Nico doesn’t. Percy might not be a genius when it came to his own relationships (Annabeth was currently sitting alone in her cabin working on her blueprints, although to be fair, if he interrupted her now, she would probably stab him and leave him to die on her cabin floor) but he can tell when people like other people. He had been able to tell with Thalia and Luke – with Hazel and Frank even after spending only a day with them – Reyna’s feelings for Jason by just one sentence she said about him – so he considers himself sort of an expert at this sort of stuff by now. 

And his gut feeling says Nico liked Jason. So that was that.

“He doesn’t like me,” Percy says with finality.

Jason, who’s been staring dejectedly at his feet, perks up. “How do you know?”

Percy shrugs. “I have a gut feeling.”

“Are you kidding me? A gut feeling? Seriously?”

“Don’t underestimate my gut feelings, dude. Need I remind you that I am part of the reason Hazel and Frank are even together?”

“Oh yeah, you’re a real matchmaker,” Jason scoffs at him. There’s some genuine bitterness in his voice and it stings a lot more than Percy would’ve thought.

“Look, what did he even say that makes you think he likes me anyway?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Percy huffs. “Jason…”

“He was just asking about you today, okay? Stuff like ‘oh you’ve become really close friends with Percy, haven’t you’. And asking how close we are and – I don’t know, it sounded like he was trying to get information about you from me.”

“What information?” Percy frowns.

“I don’t know,” Jason grumbles. “Does it matter? Look, part of the reason I’m telling you this is because I don’t really have anyone else to talk about this stuff, but also because I want you to help me.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. Come up with one of your stupid plans. Like that thing you did to defeat Chrysoar. Something so crazy that it, you know,” Jason shrugs, “works.”

Percy blinks at him. Something so crazy it works. Isn’t that just a description of every plan they come up with?

The butterfly’s on the window ledge now. It’s kind of a surreally beautiful blue, with random black smudges mixed in. He wonders if Annabeth would know what type it is and if she’d like it too. 

He wonders what Annabeth would do to help Jason if she could. She’d think it was pretty simple. “Jason and Nico like each other, but don’t think the other likes them too,” she’d say as she arranged her various books and maps on her shelf, “So come up with a plan to show them that, and tell them not to be as oblivious as some Seaweed Brains I could mention.”

He knows Frank would be more strategic. “Jason and Nico like each other but there’s an obstacle in the way,” he’d say as he played chess with some Roman centurion. “So get rid of the obstacle,” he’d knock over the centurion’s rook, “and the plan will set into motion by itself.”

“The key to making people do something you want them to do,” Piper would say as they sparred in the arena, “is to make them believe they want it too. They might not be willing to go along with your plans at first, but if you’ve got the right skills, it’s easy.”

“Everything happens for a reason,” Leo would tell him as he hung upside down from some gigantic monstrosity of an automaton he would be working on, “And it isn’t a coincidence that you’ve been pulled into this Jason-Nico sandwich. You might think you’re just causing trouble between them but I was causing trouble between Hazel and Frank once too, wasn’t I? And didn’t that end beautifully.”

“People only see what they want to see,” Hazel would tell him as they rode their horses together, probably the best person to talk to about this, “But not Nico, mostly because he’s so sure what he wants is wrong. It might take a little magic on your part, Percy, but I’m pretty sure you could show him what he wants, couldn’t you?” She’d slow Arion down and look at Percy with her hundred-carat eyes. “Maybe even give it to him.”

“Percy? Please tell me you’ve been listening. Gods, I hate your ADHD.”

Percy’s gaze snaps away from the butterfly and to Jason. Jason’s eyes are almost as bright blue as the butterfly.

“So,” Jason says almost nervously, fidgeting with his hands, “Do you have a plan?”

In his mind’s eye, he can see the rook falling. _Get rid of the obstacle._ Well, what if the obstacle wasn’t such a problem?

What if the obstacle _helped_?

He can practically hear Aphrodite giggling over the plan forming in his head. Somewhere in Split, Cupid is probably smiling as he polishes his bow.

 _“There is always a way out,”_ Athena had told him all those years ago, _“for those clever enough to find it.”_

Slowly, Percy smiles. “Definitely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it has begun!  
> The name of this chapter is a song lyric from Time by Cute is What We Aim For. It's a really good song and this lyric especially made me think of Jason and Percy so I thought, "Why not?"  
> This story's going to have really long chapters coming up if it goes the way I planned. I hope you liked this one!  
> Credit for the idea of the story (at least half of it) goes to LadyLia.  
> Kudos, comments and stuff are appreciated.


	2. Blink Back To Let Me Know

Jason is terrified.

He’s been terrified for a while now, actually. He thinks of himself as a brave guy overall but something about the way Percy had smiled back in the Zeus cabin had just made Jason want to dive for cover. He can so totally understand why people always blame Percy whenever anything goes wrong. Percy looked less like he was going to set up two of his friends together and more like he was going set up a bomb. Jason isn’t too fond of bombs so he had almost instantly asked to back out of whatever plan Percy had thought of.

If not for the weird seriousness in Percy’s eyes when he’d told him he wanted to help, Jason would think Percy was just using this whole thing as an excuse to come up with as many ways to humiliate Jason as possible.

He’s currently standing in front of the close-to-bursting closet in the Aphrodite cabin. Piper and Percy are sitting to the side, probably talking about the surfing trip the two of them had taken to Montauk a couple of weeks ago. Drew Tanaka walks a slow circle around Jason and looks him up and down critically. Jason fidgets. He really should’ve brushed his hair in the morning, and why did he think it was a good idea to wear a shirt that hasn’t been washed in a week?

“When you said ‘fix him’,” Drew says, turning to Percy, “what exactly did you mean?”

Percy looks up from where he and Piper are going over a couple of photographs. “Uh, I don’t know. Just, you know, use him as your personal Barbie doll or something. Do what you think is best.”

“I am not a Barbie doll,” Jason snaps.

“More like a Ken,” Drew winks at him.

“Same difference,” Percy says, “Seeing as how Ken is as much a girl as Barbie is.” Making sure the girls aren’t looking at him, he mouths, “No balls,” at Jason.

Jason shakes his head at him but he can’t help smiling. Piper nudges Percy back into conversation and Jason turns to look at Drew crouched down, elbow-deep in clothes.

“You wear T-shirts usually, right, hon?” she says over her shoulder.

“Yeah, and jeans.”

“Hmm… well maybe a button-up…”

Jason blinks. “Um, T-shirts are easier to train in.”

“You’re not training, Jason,” Piper speaks up. “You’re trying to woo Nico.”

“You _told_ her?” Jason glares at Percy, who just splutters.

“No, he didn’t,” Piper says, “It’s pretty easy to deduce. Why else would you come here to get all beautified up?”

“Perfect!” Drew screams from the closet. She throws a light blue button-up in Jason’s direction. “Bathroom’s that way. Oh, and put these slacks on, let’s see how they go with it.”

Well, at least she isn’t putting make-up on him. Jason follows her directions and enters a fairly large garishly pink bathroom. It’s cluttered with clothes, hair products, and skin products; make up, shoes and (worst of all) girl things that make him blush just by looking at them. He’s pretty sure Drew shoved him into the girls’ bathroom, but he just wants to get this thing over and done with, so he starts to change his clothes.

Drew doesn’t seem to drool over him as much as she used to. It might be because she knows he likes a boy now but Jason doesn’t see why that made her back off faster than the fact that he didn’t like her flirting with him anyway.

Piper seems to be fine with him too which is a relief. She was hurt at first when they had broken up, but then so had he. Not because he was in love with her. Mainly because when you’ve been with a person that long, it doesn’t matter if you have romantic feelings for each other. You become friends and then breaking up with them just means that you can’t even be friends anymore.

He had been scared of that for a while but two months after their breakup, they were still friends. Maybe not great friends, and there were definitely awkward pauses whenever they were alone, but they were getting there. Piper sure seemed eager for him to finally ask Nico out, so that was a good sign. And Nico didn’t seem to have any grudges against Piper. Not like he did with Annabeth.

He almost ripped a hole in the slacks as the thought crossed his mind.

 _Not like he had with Annabeth._ Of course not. Because Nico liked Percy. _Likes_ Percy. And Percy is dating Annabeth. Of course Nico would have a grudge against Annabeth. He just seemed to be very good at hiding it. Piper, on the other hand – why would Nico have a grudge against her? Despite what Percy kept telling him, Jason was certain Nico didn’t have any romantic feelings for him at all.

But for a while, in the middle there, he really _had_ thought…

Then he remembers yesterday, when he and Nico were practicing swordplay against each other, Nico saying, _“So how’s Percy these days?”_

_“You guys have been spending a lot of time together, huh?”_

_“How close are the two of you, really?”_

After the third question, Jason had said his goodbyes quickly and left. He had been feeling a bit panicky. He had been so sure Nico had liked him. If Nico hadn’t started those questions about Percy, he might even have confessed to him. 

What a disaster that could’ve been.

Jason didn’t resent Percy for it. He knew it wasn’t his fault. Still. Percy had completely ignored Nico for a long time. He had unintentionally hurt him and hadn’t really even tried to be his friend until after he came back from Tartarus. Annabeth had told Jason that Percy used to be worried about Nico once, that part of the reason Percy even went into Daedalus’ Labyrinth three years ago was because Nico was in there. But somewhere along the way, Percy had forgotten about him.

And Jason had picked up the pieces. He’d helped Nico, showed him that he wasn’t unnatural or wrong, that he belonged just the like rest of them. Part of the reason Nico was okay now, walking around and talking to people and laughing and smiling was because of _Jason_.

And yes, Jason knows how self-centered all of it sounds. He really doesn’t mean to bash Percy. He knows how guilty Percy feels about the way he treated Nico for so long. It’s just really unfair – you’d think after all Jason had done, he’d get the guy. 

A loud knock on the door jars him out of his thoughts. “Jason, hon, you okay?”

He really wishes she’d stop calling him that. He smooths out his shirt. “Yeah, ready.”

He gathers up his own clothes in his arms and steps out of the bathroom. Immediately, Drew snatches the clothes out of his arms, dumps them on the floor, and then steps back to check him out. Piper and Percy look too.

There’s silence at first. Jason’s going to kill Percy for this.

Finally, Percy grins. “Not too shabby, Grace,” he says.

“Slacks are too small, though,” Drew says thoughtfully (the only time Jason’s ever heard her say something thoughtfully), “And you need shoes, of course, but we can do that later.”

“So can I go now?” Jason says, bending down to gather up his clothes.

“Of course not!” Drew gasps. Piper rolls her eyes at her drama. 

“There are still things we need to do,” Drew says. “This won’t be successful unless you look the whole package.” She turns her back and starts rummaging in her dressing table drawers.

Jason sneaks a glance at Percy and Piper, who both seem to be enjoying this immensely. He glares at them and they hide their faces behind the photographs they’re looking at. He’s got this urge to march over there, grab all the photos he can see, and give Percy a thousand paper cuts.

“Here it is!” Drew turns around. Her eyes look crazy and in her hands is a long pair of scissors made of steel. They glint in the light as Drew snaps them open and closed.

“Are you sure she’s allowed to have sharp objects?” Percy whispers loudly to Piper, who snorts.

“Uh, Drew,” Jason says carefully, “What are those for?”

“What do you think?” Drew smirks. “Your hair is too long, which is almost never attractive on boys. You need a haircut.”

Jason’s eyes widen. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Drew says as she yanks Jason down into the chair in front of the dressing table. “I’m a professional.”

Percy is so dead.

~*~

During the hour Jason spends in the Aphrodite cabin, he gets a full makeover.

Drew makes him change clothes so he won’t get them dirty, and he occasionally sees her spritzing cologne on the clothes out of the corner of his eye. She trims his hair, washes it and then dries it (Jason put his foot down as soon as she bought out the hair gel), then told him to shave even though he barely had any facial hair anyway (“We don’t want you having a gross neck beard like Percy,” she had said all sagely, while Percy spluttered in the background). She’d even gotten a few Aphrodite kids to do something to his fingernails that had felt completely _amazing_ (he could see Percy pouting jealously in the mirror) and had then done something not-so-amazing to his teeth which made them almost unnaturally white (Percy had actually winced at that).

Finally, she’d made him put on his clothes, unnecessarily unbuttoned a few of the top buttons (and rolled his eyes when he buttoned half of them back up), made him roll up his sleeves (“What’s the point of wearing a full-sleeved shirt if you’re just going to roll the sleeves up?” Jason had whined) and then had scurried off to find him a perfect pair of shoes.

“Damn, Grace,” Percy jokes as Jason’s checking himself out in the mirror. “Making me doubt my sexuality here.”

“Not funny,” a very familiar voice says near the front door, and Annabeth enters the Aphrodite cabin. “What exactly is going on here? Percy, you skipped your swordplay class. All those new campers sitting around waiting for their teacher to arrive…”

“Sorry, we had an emergency,” Percy says, kissing her cheek as a greeting.

“What kind of an emergency?” Annabeth raises an eyebrow.

“He just wanted to watch Jason get the Barbie treatment,” Piper says, walking up to them from the back of the cabin. “Here,” she drops a pair of shoes at Jason’s feet. “Drew says to wear these.”

Jason nudges at them. “Are they even my size?”

Piper shrugs. “They’re Mitchell’s, and you guys seem about the same sizes.”

“If they don’t fit you, you could borrow something from me if you want,” Percy suggests.

“Uh, no,” Annabeth puts in. “You only have old ratty sneakers. I doubt Drew would want Jason to wear those, not today.”

“Hey, here’s a _crazy_ idea,” Jason says, “How about I wear my own shoes?”

“You can’t,” Piper says, “Because then you’d be comfortable, and Drew definitely doesn’t want that. Now put on your shoes and get out of here before she comes back and realizes you need something more to complete your look.”

Jason doesn’t need to be told twice. He jams his feet in the shoes (perfect fit – suspicious) and races out of the cabin. Percy is right behind him, even though Annabeth shouts at him, “Percy, you have a canoeing class to teach!”

“I’ll deal with it!” Percy shouts back.

“What is that supposed to mean? Percy, you better not blow something up!”

“No promises,” Percy calls back before they slam the door shut.

“That was close,” Percy says as they walk away. Jason isn’t exactly sure where they’re meant to go so he just follows Percy.

“I am so going to kill you for all of this,” Jason says, picking at his new shirt.

“Relax, man, you look good,” Percy smiles, “Cologne’s a little too strong though, but that’s nothing new.”

“We can’t all smell like the sea without even trying,” Jason grumbles. “Where are we even going?”

“That’s the next step of this phase of Operation Blue Bananas.”

Jason frowns. “I still don’t understand why you call it that.”

“Everything is better when it’s blue, man. So if this plan is blue, it’s going to be _amazing_.”

“Well, what about the bananas part?”

Percy grins. “It was going to be Operation _Two_ Blue Bananas before, if you know what I mean.”

“Uh… I _don’t_ know what you mean.”

“ _You_ _know_ ,” Percy says, slinging an arm around Jason. “You and Nico. Two dudes.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “Two _bananas._ ”

Jason stares at him, horrified, for a full minute. Finally, Percy gives him the most exaggerated wink in the world and Jason loses it, pushing Percy away from him and screaming, “Oh dear _gods_ , what are you, _twelve_?” and trying hard not to laugh along with him.

When they eventually start walking again (Percy still smirking and Jason still trying not to laugh), Jason says, “So what is the next step anyway? The first step was so terrible; I can’t imagine how bad the next one must be.”

“Don’t worry, I have it all under control.”

Jason narrows his eyes. “Define ‘under control’.”

They’re heading for the canoe lake, so Percy probably _is_ going to teach his class. Jason doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do while Percy teaches the new campers. Just sit around in his fancy clothes? Usually he would’ve snuck a little sword training in but he didn’t want to get these clothes dirty.

Percy hasn’t answered him. He probably wasn’t even listening in the first place. He’s scanning the lake’s shore like he’s looking for someone, which Jason doesn’t really understand. His class – full of bright-eyed newbie campers – is clustered around a patch of trees, talking and laughing with each other. 

Percy and Jason walk up to them together and then Percy clears his throat and says, “Okay, listen up!”

The campers all turn to them, and instantly their eyes widen. Jason knows what they see. The Son of the Sky God and the Son of the Sea God. Heroes of Olympus. Praetors. The guy who defeated Kronos and the guy who killed Krios. Two of the Seven of the Prophecy who conquered Gaea herself. Jason Grace and Percy Jackson.

The admiration and adoration in their eyes is so obvious, Jason has the urge to tell them about the time Percy found a mysterious fungus in the forest, ate it just for kicks, and then had constipation for the next week. Or about the fact that Jason actually made out with a brick once, tongue and all (in his defense, it was a dare). Anything so they can stop looking at them like that.

“Today’s class,” Percy starts, “is cancelled.”

The campers all start muttering again. “Uh, what are you doing?” Jason murmurs.

“Trust me,” Percy says to him. “We have a canoeing class scheduled for tomorrow, right?” he says to the crowd.

The kids nod.

“Then come back tomorrow!” Percy says brightly. “Right now, me and my friend…”

“My friend and I,” Jason corrects.

“Ex-friend soon,” Percy glares at him before turning back to the kids. “We need the canoes.”

One of the kids raises his hand uncertainly. “All of the canoes?” he says.

“Yes, definitely,” Percy nods. “We have, uh, world-saving business we need to do. You don’t want to stop us from getting along with our world-saving business, do you?”

The kids all start murmuring and shaking their heads again. “Great!” Percy says, clapping his hands once. “Uh, go away now, please. Shoo.”

The younger campers exchange looks and then meander off away from the canoes. Jason watches them go. “Well, that was unnecessary,” he says.

“Oh, it was definitely necessary,” Percy says, heading to one of the canoes. He starts untying it from where it’s tethered to the edge of the pier.

“We don’t need all the canoes,” Jason says as he watches him.

“No, but I didn’t want people in the other canoes gawking at the two of you.”

Jason frowns. “Two of who?”

“You and Nico. Holy Hera, who tied this knot? It’s so hard to untie…”

“Me and _who again_?” Jason hisses, grabbing Percy’s shoulder and spinning him around. 

“Nico,” Percy says calmly. “You know. Nico di Angelo. Son of Hades. Apple of your eye and all that…”

“Why would Nico be here?” Jason demands.

“I invited him. It’s a date with you, basically, but of course I didn’t use the word ‘date’.”

Jason feels a bit dizzy but not dizzy enough to not land a good punch at Percy’s face. Before he does that, though, he really wants to understand what it is he’s saying. 

“Step 2, remember?” Percy says. “I told you about it, didn’t I?”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Really?” he looks genuinely surprised. “Well, basically, I asked Nico to come down here because I needed his help retrieving something from the bottom of the lake way out there.” He turns and points into the centre of the lake. 

“Do you?” Jason asks.

Percy snorts. “Of course not. It was just a way to get him to come here. The three of us are going to canoe out there, then I’m going to suddenly and out of the blue remember that – _oh yeah!_ – I _so_ completely forgot to ask Annabeth where on the bottom of the lakebed that thing even was specifically. So then I’m going to abandon the two of you in the middle of the lake, get back here, and then I’ll just go off and do random things for the next, oh, hour or so. Then when you guys finally get bored with each other – or, hopefully, decide that you should continue your make-out session in the privacy of your cabin – you’ll come back to shore, run into me, and I’ll just be _so completely floored_ by the fact that I forgot you two were waiting for me. But by then it’ll be too late for me to go get it again, so I’ll go back to my cabin, and you and Nico will go to yours and do whatever you hormonal teenagers do these days.”

Percy finishes his speech with a big smile on his face and his hands on his hips, looking incredibly pleased with himself. Jason can only gape.

When did Percy come up with this? When did he even have time to invite Nico?

Then he remembers Percy ducking out of the Aphrodite cabin while Drew was still fussing over him. He remembers what Annabeth said: _“You only have old ratty sneakers. I doubt Drew would want Jason to wear those, not today.”_

Not today.

Something Drew said comes back to him too. _“This won’t be successful unless you look the whole package.”_

This.

The last to know, once again. Percy was the worst wingman in the world.

“Nice plan, huh?” Percy grins.

The only thing Jason can think of to say is, “Your brain really _is_ made of seaweed.”

Percy rolls his eyes. “It’ll work out great, you’ll see.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, you forgot one little fact, genius: why exactly would I even have to go with you and Nico? I’m not even helping in retrieving the thing, am I?”

Percy blinks as if this honestly hadn’t occurred to him. After a long pause in which he stares off into the distance and Jason tries so, so hard not to electrocute him, Percy finally says, “How about this? You get bored and lonely without me so you decide to tag along.”

“But I _don’t_ get bored and lonely without you.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Percy shrugs. “Now help me push this stupid canoe into the water.”

“Shouldn’t this be easy for you?” Jason asks, reaching forward to tug at the knot along with Percy. “Canoes, water – those are your specialty, right?”

“Well, _yeah_ , but not…”

“Jason?”

Both boys freeze. Jason looks up at Percy. Somehow, the guy manages to look like he’s about to burst out laughing while keeping a straight poker face.

Jason’s starting to get panicky again. Why is he so panicky? He was never this panicky with Piper. Is he just less smooth with boys than with girls? Or is it just with boys he likes? Because he can fake-flirt back and forth with Percy all day long and…

Oh gods he’s _right there_.

Percy stands up straight. “Oh, hey, Nico. You made it.”

“Obviously,” Nico says.

There’s a pause and Jason knows the other two are waiting for him to turn around. He does, slowly.

Nico’s standing about two feet away from him, wearing his aviator jacket over a black shirt with a skull motif, black jeans with a chain hanging from the side, and black sneakers. His Stygian Iron sword hangs at his side and his skull ring is placed on his left hand. He’s looking up at Jason a bit uncertainly with big brown eyes framed with eyelashes even longer than Percy’s (which Jason didn’t even think was possible). There’s a light dusting of freckles on his nose which Jason can’t see from here but knows he would be able to if he stepped closer. His hair – the kind of hair which is perpetually silky – hangs into his eyes and brushes the back of his jacket collar, and Jason doesn’t understand why Drew had such a problem with Jason having long hair, because on Nico, it looks _amazing_.

Yeah, he has a crush. Sue him.

He’s aware of the fact that he’s staring and probably even drooling a little, so he pulls himself together and says, “Hi, Nico.” His voice comes out so eager and happy, he wants to ask Percy to drown him right there and then.

Nico smiles a bit and _oh gods are my hands really sweating this much?_ “Hey, Jason,” he says. “You’re coming with us?”

“What?” Jason says stupidly. “Uh, yeah, yes I am. I don’t really have anything else to do, so…”

“And he gets bored and lonely without me,” Percy puts in, clapping Jason on the shoulder. And – well – Percy is awesome and all, but Jason can’t help but wish they were alone right now.

They will be soon, though, once they reach the centre of the lake. He feels excited and apprehensive at the same time.

Nico shrugs. “Fine by me,” he says.

“Great,” Percy grins. “Let’s go then.” He turns to Jason. “Ready?”

Jason looks away from Percy and to Nico, who smiles again. 

“Ready,” he says.

~*~

“So what exactly is it that you need my help with?” Nico asks Percy once the three of them are in the canoe and moving towards the centre of the lake.

“Oh, you know,” Percy says vaguely. “A thing. It’s, uh, meant to be guarded by this bunch of ghosts so you’ll need to get rid of them for me.”

Nico frowns. His nose gets all scrunched up and _holy Jupiter_ why is that so cute? “Ghosts underwater?” he asks.

“Well, yeah,” Percy says. “People die underwater, don’t they? By drowning and stuff. Right, Jason?”

“What? Oh, yeah, right. Drowning and stuff.”

“But I can’t feel any departed presences around here,” Nico says, looking around over the lake. 

“That’s probably because the ghosts are like a hundred feet below us,” Percy says. “Trust me, Nico, I studied up on this thing. I know what I’m talking about.”

Nico gives him an incredulous look because, really, Percy _studying_? Thankfully, though, he doesn’t say anything.

The three boys lapse into silence. Percy’s busy moving the canoe along with his water powers. Nico rests his elbows on his knees and looks out over the lake and Jason, like the creep he is, watches him (and tries not to get caught watching him).

He’s had this crush for a while now, and sometimes it hits him with such force, he wonders why he didn’t _always_ feel this way. Maybe just because when he first met Nico, he didn’t even get to know him. And when he did, he was too worried about saving the world, and (let’s be real here) was too caught up in Piper to even think about Nico that way.

If Jason had to choose an exact moment when he started thinking about Nico _that way_ , it would probably be during The Great Cupid Incident. He remembered what he’d said to Nico back then: _“I’ve seen a lot of brave things. But what you just did? That was maybe the bravest.”_

He hadn’t just been saying that. He’d meant it. And, well, after that, he’d just started noticing little things about Nico. Like how he wasn’t eating as much as he should. Or the fact that he must be practicing with the undead in his spare time if he had muscles like he did. Or, when Nico had actually laughed at something Jason had said once, how he really should laugh more, how he really should have more _reasons_ to laugh more.

At first he had thought he just had some mother hen part of him that had only been unleashed until now. It wasn’t long after the war ended, though, that he realized he wasn’t being a mother hen or a concerned friend or a (ew) protective older brother. He liked him. He _likes_ him.

The canoe stops with a jerk and Jason practically flies out of his seat and into Nico. He quickly stops himself by grabbing onto the sides of the boat, but not before he’d moved so close to Nico that he could actually smell the weirdly nice smell of shadows and underground that always came from him. (What do shadows even smell like anyway?)

“Oh gods!” Percy cries out, slapping a hand on his forehead. “I can’t believe I forgot.”

“What is it?” Nico says. He puts a hand on Jason’s shoulder to steady him and two thoughts pass through Jason’s head:

 _Look at that. He’s_ willingly _touching people now._

_Oh my GODS he’s touching me he’s TOUCHING me Percy what do I do oh my gods what is happening_

“I don’t know where it is,” Percy says, looking at Nico dejectedly. “The thing we’re supposed to be looking for.”

“What?” Nico frowns. “I thought you said it was at the bottom of the centre of the lake.”

“Well, yeah,” Percy rolls his eyes, “But the centre of the lake is a pretty big area, Nico. I’m not going to swim around the whole place, am I? I really should’ve asked Annabeth before we came here.”

He shakes his head sadly once more and then gives Jason a look out of the corner of his eye, like: _Now._

Jason frowns. _What?_

Percy looks like he wants to kill him. _Now!_

Jason glares at him. _What in Hades are you talking about?_

Nico’s looking between the two of them suspiciously. What is Percy even…? Oh, right.

“Uh,” Jason says loudly, “How about you go back and ask Annabeth where it is? Shouldn’t take you too long, right? Being the son of the sea god and all.”

“You’re right!” Percy says a bit too enthusiastically. “That’s such a good idea, Jason. You know what? I’m going to go _right this very second_ so we don’t waste any…”

“Wait a minute,” Nico breaks in. He looks highly confused, which is an expression Jason usually sees on Percy’s face (Nico rocks the ‘couldn’t care less’ face better). “Percy, you’re going to swim all the way back?”

“Of course not,” Percy says, and then he does something so weird, Jason actually has to rub his eyes. He steps out of the canoe and onto the water. _Onto_ the water. Like, the surface. And the water doesn’t give underneath him. Two ripples just undulate out from where his feet touch the surface, like he weighs as much as an insect and not as much as, well, a Percy Jackson.

“I’m going to walk back there,” Percy smirks, “See you guys soon!”

And then, without another word, Aquaman just races back to shore, kicking up splashes of water like normal people kick up sand when they’re running on the beach.

Jason turns to Nico, stunned. “Did you know he could do that?”

“No, but it makes sense,” Nico says, watching Percy go, “It really isn’t that amazing. I mean, you can walk on air, right?” 

“Only by manipulating the winds.”

“Well, he’s just manipulating the water. Probably really easy for him.” He turns to Jason. “What are you and Percy doing?”

Jason blinks at him. “Huh?”

Nico narrows his eyes. His eyes get all puckered up, like a raisin or an old person, except definitely not that gross. And the ends of his eyes get little creases too, like laugh lines, and it’s really cute.

Since when did Jason become attracted to wrinkles?

“You two were exchanging weird looks before,” he says. “What was that about?”

“Oh, we were just,” Jason waves his hand vaguely, “messing around.”

“Percy messes around,” Nico says, “I didn’t know you did too.”

“Well, he’s just influenced me a lot, I guess.”

For some reason, this seems to make Nico shut down. He nods his head and then looks away. An awkward silence overcomes them (it’s only awkward because Jason can’t think of anything to say, he _so_ does not know how to do this wooing thing).

Finally, when Jason’s about to resort to talking about the weather, his eyes land on Nico’s wrist. His jacket has ridden up and there’s three nail marks across his wrist. They seem to be self-inflicted.

Not thinking about it, he reaches forward and grabs Nico’s wrist. “What are these?” he asks.

“What?” Nico says. “Oh, just something I got when fighting a Hydra the other day.”

“I’m pretty sure a Hydra didn’t do _that_ to you,” Jason says. He knows the drill. Nico doesn’t self-harm, thankfully, but whenever he gets nightmares from Tartarus, he does scratch at himself. Really, really hard.

“You’ve been having nightmares again?” he asks.

“Why do you say that?” Nico says innocently. Jason raises his eyebrows at him and after a brief stare-off (in which Jason, a self-respecting sixteen-year-old guy, actually gets _butterflies_ ), Nico finally looks away and mumbles, “Maybe.”

Jason nods, already expecting the answer. He realizes he’s still got a hold of Nico’s wrist and lets go of it, hoping to the gods above his hand wasn’t gross and sweaty. He moves to sit next to Nico and says, “Okay. Tell me about it.”

Jason knows Nico would never admit it to him, but it’s obvious that talking to Jason about his nightmares, or Bianca, or his horrific adventure down in hell, or anything really, makes him feel better. Even if he’s talking about the worst things, Jason can practically see the tension seeping out of his shoulders. The light is stronger in his eyes, and he even starts to use his hands as he talks.

Jason doesn’t think of himself as a good listener, but he could listen to Nico all day.

Nico starts describing his nightmare to him. By now, Jason can paint a picture of Tartarus in his mind – rivers made of fire, skies made of blood, earth made of glass – but he knows he’s never going to know the true horror of it, and he never wants to.

“Percy and Annabeth told me that what they saw of Tartarus was just a watered-down version of what I saw,” Nico says. He’s sitting cross-legged on the bench so he can face Jason but his eyes are on the skull ring he’s passing between his fingers. “And I can tell, honestly, because they didn’t hallucinate when they were down there.”

“Hallucinate?” Jason frowns.

Nico pauses and then looks up at him. “I saw Bianca,” he says, and Jason draws in a sharp breath. “It was my second day in hell. I was trying to drink the firewater because I knew it’d keep me going, but it hurt just to drink it, so I was just – lying next to the river, trying to get my courage up. And then the next thing I knew, Bianca was next to me.” He shakes his head. “She looked exactly like the last time I’d seen her. Wearing those Hunter clothes, with that unnaturally healthy glow around her.”

He pauses for a long while. A nerve is jumping in his jaw. Jason’s heart hurts a little bit. “What did she do?” he says.

Nico takes a deep breath and looks at Jason with a little smile pulling at his lips. “She took the firewater. She made me sit up. She helped me drink it, and somehow it didn’t even hurt. And then she told me to… she told me to be strong, and then she just – disappeared.”

Jason wonders what Bianca had been like. Percy’s told him she looked a lot like Nico. She must’ve been really beautiful.

“You think she was really there?” he asks softly.

Nico laughs once. “Of course not. She’s dead. I drank the water myself. It was just… Tartarus messing with my mind.”

A crow caws from somewhere above them. Nico looks out over the water, his eyes sad. His skull ring lies between them, unforgotten. Jason picks it up and moves it between his fingers. He doesn’t think it would fit even his pinky finger but he tries.

When he looks up, Nico’s smiling at him. “What are you _doing_?” he says.

“Just seeing if it fits,” Jason shrugs. “You must have really skinny fingers.”

“Or you just have really chubby ones.”

“Excuse you,” Jason says, mock-offended. “My fingers are extremely muscular, I’ll have you know.”

“You can’t have muscular _fingers_ ,” Nico laughs.

“Of course you can,” Jason grins. “See?” He shows Nico his hand and taps at the inside of his index finger. “Abs,” he says proudly.

Nico tries to roll his eyes at him all high and mighty, but just ends up laughing again. “Give that back,” he snatches the ring off of the tip of Jason’s pinky finger. It fits on Nico’s ring finger perfectly. He really _does_ have skinny fingers. And skinny everything else.

There have been too many moments when Jason has woken up in the morning to see Annabeth walking along like a zombie, or Percy with bags under his eyes, the both of them attached at the hip and talking in hushed tones and everyone keeps away from them because it’s obvious that they had a nightmare about Tartarus the night before. Everyone knows that they need each other right now, so no one interferes. And they do help each other. The next day, Percy will be back to his sarcastic self, with Annabeth rolling her eyes at him.

But it makes Jason wonder if Nico had nightmares that night too. If he woke up all alone, with no one around to take care of him. Campers are a lot nicer to him now but he still doesn’t live at Camp Half-Blood, though he drops by a lot more. Jason wishes he’d stay but he doesn’t want to push Nico into it. Still, it sometimes makes him so worried, he can’t breathe. Is Nico having a nightmare right at this moment? Is he all alone, crying to himself? Does he need someone to help him like Percy and Annabeth help each other?

Does he miss Jason?

Jason definitely misses him. All the time. He wants to make things better for him, badly. So he tries.

“I don’t think it was Tartarus,” Jason says abruptly.

Nico looks up, his smile fading a little bit. “What?”

“I don’t think it was Tartarus messing with your mind,” Jason says, talking quickly. “Because it helped you, right? Bianca appearing was _good_ for you. She gave you the strength to go on – heck, she _told_ you to be strong. Sure, it was actually you drinking the water yourself, but you didn’t even realize that then, did you? At the moment, you only thought your sister had come back to help you, and it didn’t even hurt when you drank the fire. It was _good_ for you. And Tartarus doesn’t want that, does it? Tartarus wants to hurt you. It wouldn’t help you like that.”

Miraculously, Nico doesn’t look angry at him for suggesting this. “You – you mean…”

“Percy told me something Bob the Titan told him, down in Tartarus,” Jason says. “About how Tartarus kills demigods – it heals monsters, but not demigods, because they don’t belong.” He pauses, remembering the exact words. “ _The pit hates your kind._ That’s what he said. Why would it want to help you?”

Nico swallows. “So you think…”

“I don’t think it was Bianca,” Jason says hurriedly. “But I don’t think it was Tartarus either. I think it was _you_. Your mind. Trying to keep you alive, help you survive.”

“My mind was degenerating, Jason,” Nico says sadly, “It wasn’t at its best. I was _hallucinating_ , for Hades’ sake.”

“But that hallucination helped you, right? Maybe it was your mind’s way of telling you to keep going. Help you, by letting you see Bianca – the way you remembered her.” Jason smiles at him. “It _was_ you, Nico.”

Nico blinks at him for a long while. Jason isn’t sure if he’s made things better or worse. So far, though, he’s always seemed to know the right thing to say to Nico. He hopes this is one of those times.

Finally, Nico sits up a bit straighter and stops fidgeting with his own hands. Jason can read him like a book, so he knows he said the right thing after all.

“I hope you’re right,” Nico says, “Makes me feel a bit better about myself.”

He smiles lightly and it’s a genuine smile, like always. Jason grins back.

“A bit? I gave you that long speech and it makes you feel ‘ _a bit_ ’ better about yourself? Gods, you are one tough guy to please.”

And, okay, maybe that last line was kind of flirtatious, but Nico doesn’t seem to mind. He grins at Jason who does not _in any way_ want to kiss him, he’ll have you know.

Nico looks back towards camp for a moment. “I’m pretty sure Percy’s completely forgotten about us,” he says.

“Probably too busy sucking face with Annabeth,” Jason agrees. “You, uh, want to go back?”

Nico thinks for a minute and then smiles. “Not yet,” he says, “This is nice. Let’s stay here for a while.”

Jason can’t help grinning. May the gods bless Percy Jackson.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lovesick Jason is my favorite kind of Jason. (Right behind overly helpful bro Jason, of course.)  
> This chapter seemed a lot longer to me when I was writing it. Hoped you guys liked it!  
> Can you tell I know nothing about clothes? Because in my honest opinion, the best clothes for Jason are no clothes at all.  
> Forget I said that.  
> The chapter title is from Always by Panic! at the Disco, which is a kind of Jasico song I think. It might put you in the mood if you listen to it.  
> Kudos, comments, etc are appreciated as always.


	3. And In The Sea That's Painted Black

Some people might call Percy obsessed. Percy prefers the word ‘driven’. He gets a job done once he puts his mind to it (unless his ADHD gets in the way or he gets hungry or he needs Annabeth to give him cuddles) which is why he kidnaps Jason in the wee hours of the morning and makes his way over to Mrs. O’Leary with his friend trailing behind him.

“I still don’t get it,” Jason says, confused, “What emergency is it exactly?”

Percy shrugs. “I don’t know. Reyna didn’t specify. She just said we need to get to Camp Jupiter right now.”

Jason frowns. “What about Annabeth? Wouldn’t Reyna ask for her? Or Nico?”

Percy grins at him. “Any excuse to get Nico to come with us, huh?”

Jason rolls his eyes at him but Percy sees how his cheeks turn a light pink. “You know what I mean,” Jason mumbles.

Percy walks faster as he sees Mrs. O’Leary milling around near the woods. She’s chasing a few dryads around, large tongue lolling on the ground as she tries to pounce on them. She leaps at one particular dryad, who yelps and dissipates into a tree immediately. Mrs. O’Leary’s snout slams into the tree but Percy isn’t worried – the tree has a dent in it but the friendly hellhound just looks slightly annoyed.

Percy whistles at her to get her attention and then turns back to Jason. “Don’t worry about it,” he says. “I already told Annabeth where we’re going and she said she’d tell Chiron. Mrs. O’Leary can shadow travel us there in no time.” He turns around just as the mountain of black fur scrambles to a stop next to him. “Can’t you, girl?” he coos, and she shoves her face into his, nuzzling him.

“Don’t you need Nico to shadow travel with her?” Jason asked, patting her head. “Will she know where she’s supposed to go?”

Percy widens his eyes in mock horror. “Mrs. O’Leary, I think Jason just insulted you! The nerve of this guy. Are you just going to take that sitting down?”

Mrs. O’Leary trains her sights on Jason and in one fluid move, she has him pinned to the ground and is giving him a drool shower.

Jason looks at Percy with one eye opened as she licks all over his face. “You’re dead to me,” he says.

“Careful – you open your mouth, her drool could get in.”

As if on cue, a blob of her saliva lands dangerously close to Jason’s lips. For a second Percy thinks Jason’s going to scream bloody murder at him but before he can, Mrs. O’Leary starts nuzzling his stomach and then Jason doubles over as he laughs.

“Somebody’s ticklish,” Percy grins. He should really have not said anything because then Mrs. O’Leary notices him there and swats him onto the ground with one huge warm paw. The next thing he knows, his dog is drooling and poking him in all his ticklish places and he’s rolling on the floor next to Jason, laughing until even his ribs hurt. 

The two of them lay on the grass, laughing and snorting as Mrs. O’Leary pushes and pokes them around. His sides hurt and he’s gasping, “Stop, stop, st- AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” when he hears someone a few feet away say, “Uh, what are you guys doing?”

Mrs. O’Leary’s paw stops midway from Jason’s neck. She looks up with her tongue hanging out, a distinctly dumb Percy-like look on her face. 

“Hey, Nico,” Percy pants, grin still on his face, as he looks up at the younger boy. The guy is dressed up in all black and with his sword at his side, as usual. He isn’t wearing his jacket, which shows off the fact that he’s been working out during camp training. Percy’s pretty sure that if he turns around, Mrs. O’Leary isn’t the only one he’d see drooling right now. 

“We were just messing around,” he says, hoisting himself up onto his elbows, “Mrs. O’Leary’s really good at tickling people.”

“I can see that,” he says, and then frowns. “You know you forgot me and Jason in the middle of the lake yesterday, right?”

“Oh, yeah,” Percy says sheepishly, “Sorry. I just got sidetracked.”

“What about the thing you were supposed to recover from the lake?”

“Don’t worry about it, I can do it myself. Thanks for your help, though.”

Nico nods and then his eyes shift over to Jason, who’s sitting up and trying to look like his hair isn’t a mess and every inch of him isn’t covered in drool and grass blades (he’s not very successful).

“Aren’t you supposed to be on your way to Camp Jupiter by now?” Nico asks, his hands in his pockets.

“Yeah, we were just leaving,” Jason nods, “But then Percy made Mrs. O’Leary attack me.” He narrows his eyes at Percy.

“Hey, she didn’t _attack_ you. It was only a tickle!”

“Yes, a tickle _attack_.”

“You make it sound like you almost died,” Percy turns to Nico, “How much do you want to bet he peed his pants?”

Jason shoves at him, his face bright red, eyes wide and horrified. “Dude!”

Nico just shrugs. “Ten drachmas say yes.”

Percy laughs as Jason covers his face with his hands. “Oh my gods,” he mumbles.

Percy untangles his legs from Jason’s (when did that happen and why are Jason’s legs so much more muscular than his?) and stands up. “Anyway, love to chat, but we really should be going.”

“Yeah, big emergency at Camp Jupiter,” Jason gets up too. He makes a big deal of dusting himself off. Percy tries extremely hard not to slap him upside the head.

Nico’s watching Jason with some uncertainty in his eyes. He looks like he’s deciding whether or not to say something but before Percy can ask, he says, “Can I, you know, come with you guys?”

Jason’s head shoots up and he looks at Percy. Percy understands why. He’s the wingman. He’s meant to know what to do in situations like this. So, making his decision using his detailed and extensive wingman knowledge, Percy shakes his head at Nico. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he says, “The two of us going is fine. You can stay and hold the fort here.”

Something familiar flashes in Nico’s eyes – something like hurt – and Percy remembered a year or so ago, when he had left Nico in the Underworld to keep an eye on his dad while Percy went into the world of the living to rally his friends to prepare for Kronos’ invasion. Had that really been only a year ago? So much had changed since then.

Including Nico. Back then, he’d looked up to Percy like he was some kind of incredible hero. Even though Percy hadn’t known about the crush, he had been aware of Nico’s hero worship. The guy had thought Percy could do no wrong, that no one’s opinion mattered over his. Now, though, Nico turns to Jason and says, “What do you think?”

Jason glances at Percy. For a second, Percy thinks he’ll say yes and Phase 2 will be ruined just like that. But Jason must have more faith in Percy’s wingman-ness than he thought.

“I think Percy’s right,” he says, “We won’t even be that long. Just in and out, real quick.”

“Yeah, we can handle it,” Percy reassures Nico.

Nico nods. “Alright. Good luck, then.”

“Great,” Percy grins. “Come on, Jason.”

Mrs. O’Leary stoops down low so the two boys can get onto her back. Nico steps forward and puts a hand to her snout, his pale hand in stark contrast to her dark fur. “Camp Jupiter, okay?” he says quietly. “The Caldecott Tunnel. You remember that, right?”

Mrs. O’Leary’s tail flaps up and down in affirmation and she licks Nico’s jaw with a small flick of her tongue. “Oh that’s just great,” Jason says from behind Percy, “I get a tongue bath but she barely even touches you?”

“That’s because I’ve trained her to not do that to me. Sometimes she doesn’t listen but I don’t really mind, I guess.”

Jason gives Percy a very judge-y look. “How come _you_ haven’t trained her?”

“She’s a gigantic friendly hellhound,” Percy protests, “How am I supposed to train a dog like that anyway?”

“You probably wouldn’t be able to do it even if I told you,” Nico smirks.

“Yeah, well, you’re stupid,” Percy mumbles. He huffs when the other two laugh at his amazing comeback. “Well, _whatever_. Come on, Mrs. O’Leary, let’s go already.”

~*~

Jason looks like he wants to electrocute him. Percy sits across from him on the table in the principia and puts on his best _I’m sorry_ face. He doesn’t know why it isn’t working. It works on practically everyone except for Annabeth and even then she caves in when he starts to cuddle her. Maybe Jason would forgive him if he cuddled with him too. 

Before he can ask Jason if he wants cuddles, Jason snaps, “I can’t _believe_ you would do this.”

Frank looks up from the head of the table where he’s currently shuffling a deck of Mythomagic cards. He looks even buffer than when last Percy saw him, which Percy didn’t think was possible, and he looks so dignified with his praetor’s cape and medals and junk that Percy stifles the urge to fall to his knees and scream, “We are not worthy!”

“Really?” Frank says Jason. “If anyone can do something this stupid, it’s Percy. Or, you know, Leo.”

“I thought you guys were dying!” Jason exclaims at Frank. “Or that Camp Jupiter was under attack or something!”

“I never said that,” Percy puts in. “I just said it was an emergency. And it was.”

Jason glares at him. “Teaching me Mythomagic was an emergency?” He motions to the deck Frank has in his hands.

Percy nods somberly. “It’s really a disgrace that you don’t know how to play, Jason. Seeing as, you know, you have the hots for a complete Mythomagic geek.”

Jason starts pelting him with jelly beans from the bowl on the table. “I’m sorry but it really is important!” Percy says, “It’s Phase 2, Jason!”

Jason tosses one last jelly bean. It’s blue so Percy catches it in his mouth. It’s blue so it tastes good.

“Phase 2?” Jason snaps. “Explain.”

“Phase 2,” Percy says, chewing, “is you learning all about Mythomagic from Frank and then impressing Nico with your far-reaching understanding about the game.”

Jason narrows his eyes at him and then throws Frank a look. “You knew about this?”

Frank shrugs. “He Iris Messaged me in the morning. While I was getting out of the _shower_ ,” he throws Percy a look. Percy smiles widely. “He told me about your whole Nico dilemma and how you’d trusted him into helping you two get together. Everyone else had war games today and Reyna was already overseeing, so I decided to stay behind to help you. They’ll probably be gone for like two hours, so we have plenty of time.” 

“Then we have perfect timing,” Percy says.

“I guess. Reyna’s trimonthly visit to Camp Half-Blood is tomorrow, isn’t it? You could’ve come then. She would’ve been gone all day.”

Percy blinks. He had not thought of that. “Oh.”

Frank raises his eyebrows at Jason. “Really, though? You asked _Percy_ for romantic help?”

“I know,” Jason sighs. “I must be crazy.”

“Excuse me,” Percy exclaims, mouth full of blue jelly beans, “May I remind you that I have a long-lasting, strong, healthy relationship with a girl who also happens to be my best friend? I am _the_ person to go to for romantic help.”

“It took you almost _five years_ to ask her out,” Jason says.

“And even then he didn’t,” Frank adds, “Annabeth told me she made the first move. And that she kissed him a whole year before and he acted like it never even happened.”

Percy really hates Frank and Annabeth’s friendship. They tell each other _everything_. “Yeah, well, other than those slip-ups…”

“The other girl you had a chance with turned into a _virgin_ Oracle,” Jason points out.

“And you abandoned the other one on an island for eternity,” Frank says.

“Hey!” Percy cries. “That wasn’t…”

“The only guy who liked you had to hide it for years and you never even noticed it,” Jason puts in.

“And now you’re trying to match him up with one of your friends in what is possibly the worst plan ever,” Frank says, going through his deck. “Not to mention, you took kind of an unholy interest in mine and Hazel’s relationship. I mean, honestly, Percy, it was kind of creepy.”

“It was _not_ that bad,” Percy rolls his eyes.

“Not that bad? Last month, you followed us around and hung mistletoe under every doorway we were likely to go through. And the crazy part was it wasn’t even Christmas!”

“Well, okay, that was kind of weird but…”

“You have a whole album of pictures of Hazel and Frank cuddling called Pictures of Hazel and Frank Cuddling,” Jason deadpanned.

“It’s cute, okay? Other than that, I don’t…”

“You stole all my shirts, told me Hazel had them, and made a video of me trying to talk to her _half-naked_!” Frank says, face turning red as he remembered.

Percy grins. “Oh yeah, that was fun. But really, that doesn’t mean I’m creepy. I just like you two together.”

“You’re right,” Jason nods. “What’s creepy is how you have a little Hazel doll and a little Frank doll and you and Leo play with them and make them kiss.”

Frank blinks. “Wait, _what_?”

“ _Anyway_ ,” Percy says loudly, shooting Jason a glare, “Can we get on with the reason we came here? Frank, can we start the lesson, please?”

Frank gives him a highly suspicious look for a whole minute but then says, “Fine,” and gets to business.

He brings out a new, shiny deck of Mythomagic cards. “Got them from a store in New Rome,” he says. He hands Jason the deck. “These are yours now.”

“Thanks,” Jason says, inspecting them. “How long will this take, exactly?”

Frank reaches into his pockets and brings out not one, not two, not three, but _four_ different decks of Mythomagic cards. Jason’s matches the oldest, thinnest deck Frank has. In addition to that, Frank pulls up a small briefcase. He places it on the table and opens it to show various figurines of gods placed carefully in metal stands, which he lifts out and positions on a board – kind of like a chess board – that he takes out from the bottom of the case.

The grin on Frank’s face is so Leo-like it’s kind of scary. “A while,” he says.

~*~

Percy dutifully sits through two hours of Frank teaching Jason Mythomagic. During that time, he goes through several stages:

1\. Interest. He really wants to know what it is about this game that has so many demigods, including Frank and Nico, hooked. It seems pretty cool, what with the shiny cards and figurines of gods. As Frank starts to explain, Percy thinks: _Hey, this is pretty easy. I could get into this._

2\. Confusion. Percy is quite used to being confused, honestly. It isn’t long after Frank starts to explain the differences in attack points of the same card if the other person attacks first or if you do, or what the basis of exchanging the figurines is, or in what scenarios the simplest cards are the most effective, or how you’re supposed to move the figurines or place the cards on the board that Percy starts to lose grasp of this game. Thankfully, Jason seems to still get it.

3\. Distraction. His ADHD acts up pretty quickly after that. The principia is actually really nice once he looks around. The whole place has a really tall feel to it – high-backed chairs, long tables, high ceilings, tall windows. Annabeth would have an architectural name for it, he’s sure. Frank’s hair is really short now. If Percy squints, he can actually see his scalp. What would Reyna be doing right now? They probably should’ve said hi before barging in. But then he would have to lie to her and her dogs would kill him, which he thinks would irritate Annabeth a little bit. He so doesn’t want Annabeth and Reyna to start fighting – that would probably start another Greek/Roman apocalypse. Hey, the Aphrodite figurine is really pretty.

4\. Hunger. Hey, he’s a growing boy, sue him. He eats all the blue jelly beans in the bowl and then Frank, that wonderful friend of his, tells Percy where the principia’s own food store is. Percy spends a good half hour in there gorging on everything. 

5\. Boredom. He literally stares at his fingernails for a whole twenty minutes. That is how bored he is.

6\. Irritation. Gods above, why couldn’t Jason land the guy himself? Why did he need Percy’s help anyway? Percy could be having so much fun right now – practicing swordplay or goofing off with Leo or Grover or playing with Mrs. O’Leary or swimming. If Operation Blue Bananas doesn’t work, he will find himself a secluded island and become a hermit there. The only people he will let himself see are his mother, who will bring him blue cookies, and Annabeth, who will cuddle with him.

7\. Sleepiness. 

Well, okay, less like _sleepiness_ , more like _sleep._ He dozes off after the first hour and wakes up with Jason jostles him.

“Percy, you drooled all over my Hephaestus figurine,” Frank says, disgusted, “Gross.”

Percy wipes his mouth and squints at Jason. “You done?”

Jason slumps against the table next to Percy’s chair as he rubs his eyes. “Uggh, yes,” he says, “This is a really hard game to understand.”

“But it’s cool, right?” Frank prompts. The grin on his face is still there as he carefully and meticulously packs up his cards and figurines. 

“Yeah, but I would like it more if I didn’t just have a crash course on it,” Jason blinks at them blearily, “Feels like I’m preparing for an exam.”

“You are,” Percy says, standing up and stretching. “You gotta get an A in impressing Nico, dude. It’s the only way.”

“Gods, I am so lucky you were too busy saving the world to ‘help’ me in ‘impressing’ Hazel,” Frank says to Percy, using actual air quotation marks. Percy slaps his hands away.

“Come on, let’s go back,” he says to Jason. “Hopefully, Nico’s still hanging around camp.”

“Not to mention,” Frank says as he packs up his cards, “I have a Senate meeting in a half hour, which means Reyna’s going to be here soon.”

“Oh,” Jason says, “I guess we should say hi then?” He shrugs, not looking too eager to do that. Percy knows why. Jason and Reyna aren’t exactly friends anymore – Jason feels guilty about her for a lot of reasons but at the same time kind of annoyed because Nico’s told him tons of times how he doesn’t like the way Jason treated her. If there actually is something that comes between them, it’s most probably Reyna. Jason’s whined about this to Percy enough times that he’s got all of it memorized.

“We probably shouldn’t,” Percy says, “Are you forgetting that I told Annabeth that Reyna called us here? What if Annabeth already IMed Reyna and asked her if she did?”

“She probably did,” Frank says, “I mean, considering your luck, tell me which is more likely: Reyna meeting you with open arms and giving you a buffet while you talk about the good old days, or Reyna siccing her dogs on you the minute she sees you because you lied to Annabeth?”

Jason and Percy exchange looks, and then high-tail out of there.

~*~

As it turns out, Annabeth didn’t IM Reyna.

Nico did.

“Should’ve known,” Percy mumbles to Jason as he sits next to him in the amphitheatre. Nico is pacing in front of them, lecturing them about how irresponsible they are. He won’t let them move, even to use the bathroom, and it’s come to the point where Percy’s thinking about threatening to pee on him if he doesn’t let them go. He doesn’t think that’ll go over so well with Nico, though. Not to mention, Jason just might cut his junk off if he pees on his Italian puffball of death. 

Jason tears his eyes away from Nico long enough to mutter back to Percy, “What do you mean?”

“Reyna’s and Nico’s friendship is horrifyingly close, remember?” Percy says, “He’s obviously more likely to IM her than Annabeth is.”

“If it’s so obvious, why didn’t you realize that before? Now he’s mad at us.”

“You’re just getting butthurt because he’s mad at _you_.”

“I’m not getting _butthurt_ …”

“Are you even listening to me?” Nico snaps.

“Yes, we are,” Percy says tiredly, “Just like we have been for the past half hour.”

Nico folds his arms. “It’s only been ten minutes since you got here.”

“Well, hearing someone lecture me makes time go slower,” Percy says. “Come on, Nico, what did we even do wrong?”

Nico looks at him like he’s crazy. “You went across the country without telling anyone why. You made everyone here worry that Camp Jupiter was under attack. You didn’t even take any backup with you. Mrs. O’Leary is completely tired because of shadow travelling the two of you _twice_. Not to mention, you skipped all the classes you had to teach today. And when I IMed Reyna and found out she _hadn’t_ called you, I thought you two had gotten lured into a trap by some monster and _died_! How’s that for ‘wrong’?”

He glares at Percy. “Pretty bad,” Percy admits.

“Not to mention,” Nico adds, “You lied to Annabeth!”

“Not a good foundation to build a healthy relationship,” Jason agrees. Percy wants to slap him.

“You’re one to talk,” Nico says to Jason. “You know you could’ve told me the truth at least.”

Jason blinks at him. “Well, it really wasn’t that big of a deal, Nico. We were just going to check up on Camp Jupiter. You know, see how they’re doing.”

“I could’ve come with you,” Nico says. “I haven’t seen Hazel in a few days and Reyna and Frank in even more than that. I don’t see why you couldn’t take me along.” His eyes dart to Percy. “Unless you were doing something you didn’t want me to know about.”

“It was nothing,” Percy assures him, “We were goofing off with Frank. If you don’t believe me, you can ask him yourself next time you go to visit Hazel.”

Nico frowns a little. He looks like he suspects something but at least he isn’t angry anymore. Finally he nods and says, “Yeah, I might go there now.”

“Wait,” Jason says quickly. “Now, as in _now_?”

“That is what _now_ means, Jason,” Nico answers.

“Well, you can’t leave _now_ ,” Jason says as he stands up. “I was going to ask you to play Mythomagic with me.”

Nico blinks. “Uh, what?”

Hesitantly, Jason brings out his brand new deck and shows it to Nico. “I just started playing recently,” he says as Nico gapes at him. “I’m not amazing at it like you are but…”

“You want to play?” Nico says disbelievingly. “With _me_?”

“Well, yeah. Who else would I want to play with?”

Nico just looks at him for a long while. He looks stunned that anyone would want willingly spend time with him. Percy remembers a long time ago, when Nico used to tag along with him everywhere, run at his heels, shove his Mythomagic stuff under Percy’s nose and excitedly tell him every little detail about it. He used to hang around with people even when they didn’t want him to, and now he doesn’t even when they do. Percy wonders when exactly Nico decided that he wasn’t wanted anywhere. He’s pretty sure he had something to do with it. His heart hurts a little bit.

Jason’s still smiling at Nico and Nico still looks a bit dumbfounded. Percy stands up. “Hey, how about this?” he says. “You guys go ahead and have your little tournament – in my room even, if you want. I have to go see Annabeth anyway. And, you know, apologize for lying and stuff. I hope she isn’t too mad.”

Jason looks grateful to him but politely asks, “You sure you don’t want to come along?”

Percy waves his hand dismissively. “Nah, it’s fine. You guys have fun.”

Nico smiles at Percy as he turns away. He can hear Jason and Nico walking off in the opposite direction, talking and laughing.

After _finally_ using the bathroom (he so should not have drank that full liter of blue cherry coke during breakfast – damn Leo and his stupid dares), he finds Annabeth at the archery range. He watches for a while as she shoots arrow after arrow at the targets, getting a bulls-eye almost every time. It still surprises him how good she is at basically everything. He’s pretty sure the reason she doesn’t have any powers is because then she’d just be too powerful and the gods would be making her do a million quests for them every day and she’d never have time to cuddle with Percy and wouldn’t that be a tragedy.

She looks over her shoulder as he comes up. “Hold on, let me shoot this last one,” she says quickly. He stops and they both watch as the arrow flies and hits the target dead centre.

When she turns around, he opens his mouth to apologize but she says, “Let me guess. Phase 2?”

An embarrassed grin spreads over his face. “How’d you know?”

“I’ve known you for years, Seaweed Brain,” she says as she hangs up her bow and quiver. “I know what you’re like. So what is Phase 2 anyway?”

“Mythomagic,” Percy says simply.

“Really,” Annabeth says as she reties her hair. “So first there was the makeover, then Mythomagic, and next…?”

Percy just smiles. “You’ll see.” He watches her as she pulls her ponytail tight. “So… you’re not mad?”

She shrugs as she takes his hand. “No. I’m used to you obsessing over other people’s relationships. I mean, it’s cute.” She wrinkles her nose. “In a creepy sort of way.”

“I’m not _obsessing_ ,” Percy says as they start walking back to her cabin. “Why do people keep saying that? Frank and Jason were saying that too, about how I was _obsessed_ with Hazel and Frank. Like I don’t have better things to do!”

“Speaking of which,” Annabeth says, giving him a look, “You know how many classes you skipped today? Classes that you had to give and classes that you had to take?”

“It was an emergency,” Percy says innocently. 

“Oh, yeah. Teaching Jason Mythomagic. Huge emergency.”

“It was in the name of love, Annabeth!” he says dramatically. “Don’t you like love?”

She snorts. “Love is overrated.”

“She says as she takes a poisoned knife for me,” Percy mutters. Annabeth elbows him in the ribs as she opens the door to her cabin.

There isn’t anyone inside. The whole ‘a boy and girl can’t be together in the same room alone’ rule is still in effect but it’s not like anyone really obeys it. Especially because not everyone in this camp is straight, are they? If Chiron wants to keep hormonal teenagers from jumping onto each other, he’s going to have to stop _any_ two unrelated people being in a room alone together, which is just ridiculous.

Percy doesn’t wait for an invitation as he flops down onto Annabeth’s bed like he belongs there. Annabeth rolls her eyes at him as she starts putting away blueprints, books, pencils, and all kinds of geometrical instruments Percy can’t make sense of.

“I have to admit, though,” she says as she carefully places the books back on their shelves, “you seem a lot more invested in this Nico and Jason stuff than it makes sense for you to be.”

Percy frowns as he stares up at her ceiling. “What do you mean?”

“Just that Frank told me that while you had been supportive of him and Hazel getting together, you hadn’t gone poking your nose in their business either.”

“I don’t poke my nose into other people’s business!” Percy protests.

“Oh, yeah?” Annabeth raises an eyebrow as she sets all her instruments away. “And what exactly is this whole Operation Blue Bananas thing you’ve got going on with Jason and Nico?”

“That’s only because Jason _asked_ me to help him.”

“Sure, whatever you say,” Annabeth says.

“You make me sound like some kind of evil matchmaker,” Percy pouts. “I’m a completely uninvolved third party here, and I have no personal feelings about any of this. I am not invested in it at all. In fact, if there was a scale from Tyson to Octavian about how unfeeling I am, I would be Thalia.”

Annabeth laughs so hard at that she doubles over. Percy glares at her. “Thalia, you hear me?” he shouts. “Thalia!”

Annabeth just keeps laughing so he rolls over and buries his face in her pillow. It smells all honey and lemon-y and Annabeth-ish and if she wasn’t laughing at him, it would smell nice (oh who is he kidding, it smells _amazing_ ).

He hears her walk over and sit down next to him. “Okay, I’m sorry,” she says, still laughing silently. “Shouldn’t have laughed. Forgive me?”

“No,” Percy says to the pillow. “I don’t like you anymore.”

She laughs even more. “ _Percy_.”

“Nope. I’m going to get Jason and Nico together and then the three of us will ride off into the sunset on Rainbow the Hippocampus to play Mythomagic and eat blue food forever, and _you won’t be invited_.” 

“Oh no, the horror,” Annabeth says as she sits against the headboard. “How will I ever live with myself?”

“That’s right,” Percy turns his head to her and pokes her leg. “Take that.”

She snickers some more and then takes his hand. “Seriously, though,” she says. “Haven’t you wondered why you’re trying so hard with those two?”

“I’m not,” Percy says, sitting up. “I’m trying an appropriate amount and nothing more. I’m being a good friend, Annabeth. Or at least _trying_ to be.”

“You know Jason will probably get to asking Nico out someday, even if you don’t help him.”

“Probably,” Percy agrees. “But it’ll be a long time before he does. Nico doesn’t even know Jason likes guys. He probably doesn’t even think Jason’s an option.”

Annabeth thinks about that a while, then snuggles closer and puts her head on Percy’s shoulder. “But at least it isn’t completely hopeless. He doesn’t think Jason’s an option but he still likes him. Doesn’t he?”

Percy puts his head on top of hers and thinks. He’s 98% sure Nico likes Jason. He’s not as obvious as Jason is, but the guy must be good at hiding his feelings for others if he liked Percy for years and even _Annabeth_ didn’t notice. 

Still, back then, no one was really looking for signs that Nico liked anyone. This time, Percy is, so he notices stuff. It’s subtle, but it’s there. Like how Nico blushes whenever Jason comes too close to him or accidentally touches him. Or how Nico’s eyes keep darting over to him during campfire sing-alongs or dinner at the dining pavilion. Whenever he talks to Jason, he always stands closer to him that he would to a normal person. He spends a lot of his time sitting on the steps of the arena when Jason’s teaching swordplay. Sometimes Percy catches him looking at Jason with this weird _look_ in his eyes – all intense and stuff – and it makes Percy feel like he’s intruding into something and he looks away. Most obviously, though, he laughs a lot more around Jason.

But Percy has to admit, there’s still something off about all of it. He’s noticed that a few times. He’s with Jason almost every time it’s happened. Jason will be looking at Nico all adoring-like, and Nico’s face will mirror that but then _something_ happens and Nico just pulls away. If he’s laughing, he’ll stop. If he’s standing close to Jason, he’ll jump back almost a whole foot. If he’s blushing, the color will drain out of his face. If he’s staring at Jason, he’ll look away so quickly you’d think looking at Jason physically pains him.

And the worst part of it is that each time he does it, he gives Percy a _look._ Percy can’t describe the look. He just can’t put his finger on what it is. But it’s a _look_ and it’s also really intense, like the way he looks at Jason, and that’s why there’s still a 2% doubt in his mind as to whether Nico really likes Jason or not.

He remembers what Jason had told him a couple of days ago. _“Nico – Nico likes you.”_ Percy was completely sure Jason was wrong but now that he thinks about it, there really is some doubt in his mind.

He so does not want to get into this love triangle crap again. 

Annabeth is looking at him, waiting for an answer. He doesn’t even remember what she asked. “Yeah,” he says, because it sounds like the right thing to say. “Absolutely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, friends, this might seem kind of haphazard but this was ALL planned. I know EXACTLY where this story is going. Yup. Definitely.  
> I really wanted to sneak some Reyna into this chapter since I ADORE her but oh well, there's plenty of her in the next one.  
> The chapter title is a song lyric from King and Lionheart by Of Monsters and Men.


	4. You'll Look Me In My Eyes and Call Me Your Friend

The night goes amazingly. That’s two days in a row that Jason’s spent his whole evening with Nico and it’s something he could get used to.

He’d tried to soak up as much as he could about Mythomagic from Frank but he hadn’t been lying to Percy when he said it was it was a hard game to understand. Honestly, it was so complicated, Jason’s head had started spinning during the crash course. It didn’t help that Percy was just sitting across from him, snoring away, probably dreaming about Annabeth and pizza and blue and just _relaxing_.

And after all that hard work, he just embarrasses himself in front of Nico.

Nico’s Mythomagic collection is even bigger than Frank’s. They’ve camped out in the Hades cabin, sitting across from each other on Nico’s bed. As if this doesn’t make Jason nervous enough, Nico becomes really animated once he starts talking about the game. He looks so freaking _cute_ and he’s so close, Jason can’t do anything the whole time except just stare at him dumbly.

They start off the game with Nico taking out hundreds of different cards and dozens of figurines, then rattling off statistics, arranging the decks in front of him professionally, and then looking at Jason expectantly. Jason makes his move, a really crappy move at that, and Nico gives him a look like: _Really? That’s what you’re going with?_

Nico wins that round with five moves flat.

He wins the next two rounds after that before apparently deciding to take pity on Jason and saying, “You have no idea what you’re doing, are you?”

Jason keeps his eyes on his cards. He can hear Nico’s smile in his voice and it’s _doing things_ to his heart. “Not a clue,” he replies casually.

“I figured,” Nico says as he slides a Hydra card to the middle of the board, which he adorably calls ‘the arena’. “It’s weird, though. You know random stuff about how to play it but then you don’t know all the basic things. It’s like you tried to learn _everything_ about this game in one night or something.”

“More like two hours,” Jason mumbles to himself as he pushes his Kronos card into the arena. When he looks up, Nico is staring at him.

“What?” Nico asks.

“Oh, nothing,” Jason replies quickly. “Just…” he sighs. “Frank tried to teach me this game, uh, a _while_ back but I still can’t get the hang of it.”

Nico frowns. “You asked Frank to teach you Mythomagic? But he’s all the way in Camp Jupiter. And he’s praetor – he’s always busy.” He hesitates. “Why didn’t you ask me?”

Jason tries to think up an excuse quickly. He goes with: “I didn’t want you to think I was stupid. Because, believe me, Frank gave me the _I can’t believe you’re this dumb_ look plenty of times while he was teaching me.”

A smile slowly spreads across Nico’s face. “Yeah, I heard he can do that with different animal faces too.”

Jason grins. “Oh, yeah. I got the cat. I’m telling you, you don’t know how useless you are until Cat Frank looks at you like you’re the worst thing in the entire world.”

Nico laughs and Jason’s grin widens. Nico’s laugh is the best sound in the world, honestly. Even Apollo’s Muses couldn’t compete with it – not even Apollo himself. Aphrodite’s laugh is nothing compared to it. Jason’s a hundred percent sure that if he ever makes it to Elysium, the music there will be just like Nico’s laugh – light, mellow and bursting with happiness. Whenever Nico laughs, he always covers his mouth and muffles it, like he’s trying to keep all that happiness inside of him and somehow that makes Jason both sad and completely lovestruck at the same time. (And yes, he is already using the L-word to describe his feelings. He is very dedicated when it comes to Nico, okay?)

Nico just shakes his head at him as he swipes up all the cards and figurines. “Let’s start over,” he says. “I’m going to show you the _right_ way to play this game.”

Jason has no problem with that at all. He could sit there for ages and listen to Nico talk. In fact, he actually zones out tons of times as Nico talks, and starts focusing on things like how Nico’s hair falls into his eyes, or the shadow cast on his cheeks by his eyelashes, or the way his small hands expertly twirl cards between his thin fingers, or… well, you get the point.

They spend hours in the cabin as Nico goes over the game. Frank’s a great friend and all but now Jason sees that he understood only a fraction of the game’s rules from Frank. He doesn’t know if it’s because Nico’s a great teacher or if he just pays more attention to him or if it’s because he’s actually having fun now, but Nico explains almost everything to him in an hour or so. After that, they start playing, which eventually spirals into them just sitting around and talking.

A lot of times, Jason tries to muster up the courage to reach over and take Nico’s hand. There’s a little voice in the back of his mind going, _“Do it, Jason, do it. Don’t be a loser, just take his hand. Honestly, Grace, I would already have done it by now.”_

It’s not until Jason mentally thinks of a reply back ( _“Like hell you would – you’d just expect him to do it first, you wimp.”_ ) when he realizes the voice in his head is Percy. Which is just weird.

They do talk about Percy a few times, like they talk about everyone. But something in the room changes when they do. Jason can sense it like he can sense changes in the winds – it just happens. It worries him because there’s an unspoken _something_ whenever Percy’s name comes up and Jason can’t put his finger on it. There’s less tension even when they bring up _Piper_.

 _That’s because you’re over Piper and you both know it,_ some horrible part of his mind says to him. _But Nico’s not over Percy and you both know that too._

This voice is definitely not Percy, though. It’s way too malicious. 

Other than the moments they talk about Percy, the evening goes awesomely. By the time the sound of the conch horn for dinner pierces the air, the two boys are already sprawled across Nico’s bed, laughing and joking and generally having a great time.

They go to the dining pavilion together. Jason usually sits right at the edge of his table so he can talk to Percy, who sits at the edge of his too. But tonight he does that with Nico – Percy’s talking to Grover anyway so it doesn’t matter.

Nico laughs less now that they’re in public but when he does, no one bats an eye, which seems to encourage him. Jason’s glad the campers are finally accepting him. There are a lot of things he likes about Camp Half-Blood over Camp Jupiter, but he has to admit that the Romans treated Nico much better than the Greeks ever did. Nico found a new sister with them, Frank’s turned into a really close friend, and the friendship with Reyna is honestly kind of scary. Not to mention, Jason himself. Sure, the Greeks are nice to Nico now too but there’s always a bit of ‘too little, too late’ floating around in Jason’s mind.

Whatever. He thinks too much anyway. Leo would throw a screwdriver at him if he heard him talking this way about the Greek campers. (Jason actually knows this for a fact – a couple of weeks ago, Frank and Leo got into a Greeks versus Romans debate and when it was obvious Frank was going to win, Leo threw a screwdriver at him. Somehow he missed and hit Jason in the head. Jason was knocked out for hours.)

“We should do this again sometime,” Jason says as he packs up his stuff from the Hades cabin.

“Play Mythomagic?”

“Sure, that too,” Jason straightens up and looks at Nico. “But I meant hang out. You know, talk and stuff.”

Nico looks up from where he’s slipping cards back into their pack. “We were stranded out on a lake for an hour yesterday,” he smiles. “Wasn’t that enough time to talk and stuff?”

Jason blinks at him for a second before forcing a smile and looking away quickly. Nico apparently notices because he hurriedly adds, “But I didn’t mean that we shouldn’t. I mean, we should. Hang out.”

“You sure?” Jason asks. “I don’t want to force you or anything…”

“No, it’s fine,” Nico gives him a huge smile that could light up the whole world. “I want to. I was thinking of staying here a few days more before leaving for Camp Jupiter, so…” He shrugs.

Jason decides not to mention how only hours before Nico had mentioned he was going to see Hazel today. He thinks he might be the reason for Nico’s change of plans. He says goodbye to Nico and practically skips the way back to his cabin.

As he gets ready for bed, he mentally reviews the night (yes, he is _that_ lame) and realizes that the only bump in the road had been when Reyna had come up in conversation. Her trimonthly visit to Camp Half-Blood is the next day, and Nico’s just as eager to see her as Jason isn’t. 

Percy is a sore subject to talk about but not really because he’s a friend to both of them. Reyna, on the other hand… well, her and Nico became really good friends during the time they were toting the _Athena Parthenos_ across the world and Nico’s very plainly said it a lot of times that he doesn’t appreciate how Jason led her on.

Jason could make a lot of excuses and arguments against that and he has in the past. The truth is, though, he was really too busy with the whole Seven of the Prophecy thing to give Reyna’s feelings a thought. Sure, he might have at least talked to her when they went to Camp Jupiter, or when she travelled half the world just because he asked her too, or a million other times since Gaea had been defeated. But he didn’t and the only explanation for that is that he was too scared to.

He’s talked to Percy plenty of times about this but despite his overly obsessive interest in Jason’s love life, Percy didn’t really know what Jason should do. Neither did Leo. Talking to Piper about Reyna would be just plain awkward, the one time he’d tried to ask Annabeth for advice, he’d stumbled onto a very intense make-out session between her and Percy and had never gone back, Hazel had just rolled her eyes at him as Hazel does, and Frank had been the only vaguely helpful one when he had told him to ‘talk it out with her’. Which would be a great idea if Jason had the guts to do it.

Cute girls are a million times more intimidating than monsters. 

_And cute boys,_ he thinks as he closes his eyes and Nico’s smile flashes behind his eyelids, _are even worse._

~*~

The next day, he is awoken by Leo bouncing on his bed.

“Rise and shine, Sparky!” he shouts. “It’s a beautiful day outside! The sun is shining and the birds are chirping and we can’t have our resident Prince of the Universe sleeping in, can we?”

Jason groans. Leo’s turned on all the lights in the cabin and they’re too bright against his eyes. “Leo…” he whines into his pillow.

“Oh, sorry, I meant _one of_ the resident Princes of the Universe,” Leo says, still flopping up and down, “Completely forgot about Water Boy. Speaking of which…”

He can’t see what Leo’s doing but judging by the sudden pressure on his back, he’s just planted his little Hispanic butt on top of him and is – wait, is he _braiding_ Jason’s hair?

“Percy says you should wake up now. Something about Phase 3?”

Jason groans even louder. Why doesn’t Percy just shout Jason’s crush from the rooftops? That guy could not keep a secret if his life depended on it (keeping his track record in mind, it probably did at some point).

“So,” Leo says conversationally, “What _is_ Phase 3?”

Jason tries to say, “Nothing,” but Leo’s kind of shoving his head into his pillow so it comes out more like, “Nuffah.”

“Is it Phase 3 of Operation Blue Bananas?”

“Dunno.”

“How come Percy even called it Operation Blue Bananas anyway? Reminds me of blue balls whenever I say it.”

Jason groans and tries to jostle him off. “Can you please stop talking about blue balls and get off me?”

“Or what? You’ll electrocute me?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, fine, then!” Leo jumps off him. “I see how it is. No one except _Nico_ can sit on top of you, huh?”

Jason really hopes his face isn’t as red as it feels. “That’s just… that isn’t…” he splutters as Leo grins, “Nico doesn’t sit on top of me!” 

“Not in reality, at least,” Leo smirks, sitting down on the bed next to his and picking up Jason’s alarm clock, “I bet it happens _all the time_ in your dreams. Or does he do _more_ than just sitting on you in your dreams?” He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.

Jason narrows his eyes at his best friend as he sits up. “Leo…” he says in a warning tone.

“I really don’t see why you’ve got the hots for him, though,” Leo says as he takes the alarm clock apart. “I mean, if you were going to have a crush on a dude, I thought your first choice would be Frank.”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “Why not Percy?”

Leo wrinkles his nose. “Percy? No way, man. Percy’s okay-looking I guess but that’s just gross. Percy and _you_? That is just wrong on so many levels.” He shakes his head, looking like he just tasted something bitter. “Plus, he kisses like _all the livelong day_. Honestly, his mouth is like super-glued onto Annabeth’s. And you’re…” he motions to Jason vaguely. “You know. You. Not a good combination, man.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Leo sighs dramatically. “You never do.” He opens his palms and then drops the alarm clock onto the ground. Except it’s not an alarm clock. It’s a mechanical bird-like thing that flies a little and then falls in Jason’s lap.

Jason picks it up. He’s awestruck, sure, but… “I needed that alarm clock, Leo.”

Leo rolls his eyes. “You never appreciate my masterpieces either.” He jumps up. “Come on, let’s go to breakfast before Percy comes in here and drags you out.”

Jason gets to his feet and rubs the sleep from his eyes. “Why would he do that?”

Leo turns around and smirks. “Apparently, Phase 3 is going to be great.”

~*~

Phase 3 is decidedly _not_ great.

“No way,” Jason says during swordplay class as he parries Percy’s strike. “Nuh-uh. I _cannot_ do this. Nope.”

“Oh, come on, Jason,” Percy says. He twists his sword, causing Jason to move closer, and then whispers, “It’s all for Nico!”

“Don’t say _that_!” Jason cries as he clangs his sword with Percy’s and pushes him backwards, “Gods, Percy, have you no boundaries?”

“It’s the only thing that’ll make you agree,” Percy says, going in for a strike that Jason easily dodges.

“Do you know how awkward it will be?” Jason jabs forward and manages to poke hard at Percy’s breastplate.

“Only if you let it become awkward,” Percy counters, apparently realizing that they’re meant to be sword-fighting, because he fits the end of his sword into Jason’s hilt and twists in a move that’s meant to contort Jason’s arm so bad that he drops his weapon. 

Instead, Jason brings his knee up, banging it into Percy’s elbow. It loosens Riptide’s hold on Jason’s sword, so he manages to wrangle out of it and slash Percy’s shoulder. Or he would, if Percy hadn’t brought his sword up in defense.

“And how,” Jason says through gritted teeth, “am I supposed to not make it awkward?”

“She was your best friend once,” Percy fakes a lunge at him, “It shouldn’t even be awkward in the first place. Just talk to her and get into the best-friend-rhythm.” Their swords clang together almost deafeningly. “Honestly, Grace, do you always abandon your best friends in favor of girl-slash-boyfriends? Do I have a reason to be worried?”

“You would if you were my best friend,” Jason strikes at him, smiling to show him he’s joking.

“Oh, that’s a low blow!” Percy cries, mock-offended.

“No, this is,” Jason says, and then jabs Percy in the stomach, kicks his feet off from under him and then points his sword at his chest once he’s down.

Percy narrows his eyes at him, face turning red. They might be friends but they’re both competitive – losing to the other is definitely cause for embarrassment. 

Jason helps him up. “What is that, twenty-three to twenty?”

Percy glares at him. “Twenty-three to twenty- _one_ ,” he says darkly. “I’m not _that_ bad. And don’t change the subject. You have to talk to Reyna. _And_ you have to tell Nico.”

Jason sighs heavily as the two of them start shedding their armor at the edge of the arena and watch the other campers. They had paired them off according to their level of skill and a surprisingly large number of campers were better than Jason would’ve thought. One of the younger girls, especially, was so tiny she was smaller than Hazel, but could disarm some really good swordfighters. 

“Percy,” Jason starts.

“No, don’t _Percy_ me,” Percy says, yanking off his helmet. “You’re always telling me how Reyna’s the only real thing that comes between you and Nico, and how guilty you are about abandoning her and stuff. Well, why don’t you work it out with her?”

“Because I don’t know how.”

“How hard can it be? Look, Jason, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but Nico doesn’t like the way you are with Reyna. Just because the dude likes you doesn’t mean he’s going to excuse you of treating someone badly. He isn’t the kind of person who chooses crushes over friendships. I mean, sure, that’s what they show you in all those chick flicks and Disney movies but it doesn’t work that way in real life, does it?”

“I know it doesn’t,” Jason says, trying not to sound as annoyed as he is, “And I like that about him.”

“Good,” Percy nods, “And you shouldn’t become friends with Reyna just to get Nico to like you. You should become friends with her because it’s time you did.”

Jason sits down and rubs at his face. He knows Percy has a point and even though he’s being a bit overly defensive of Reyna for some reason, it really is about time he talked to her. He hopes she doesn’t still expect they can be more than friends. His friends in Camp Half-Blood know he likes Nico now (with the exception of Nico himself) and Hazel and Frank in Camp Jupiter do too, but he isn’t sure if anyone told Reyna. If anyone did, it’s good to see it hasn’t gotten between Reyna and Nico’s friendship. Probably because Reyna knows he doesn’t have a chance with Nico anyway.

But if he does, he’s just going to ruin it by not talking to her since Reyna’s the closest to Nico’s best friend these days.

Most importantly, though, he’s hurt _her_. And Percy’s right, she was once his best friend. And he would be lying if he said he didn’t miss her.

“Alright, fine,” Jason says, lifting his hands in surrender. “I’ll ask Reyna for forgiveness. But I won’t do the other thing.”

Percy rolls his eyes. “Dude. Come on. It’s not like I’m asking you to tell him you like _him_. I’m just asking you to tell him you like guys too.”

“I don’t see how that’ll help at all.”

“Of course it will! Look, Nico has feelings for you, okay? But he doesn’t act on them because he doesn’t even think you’re an option. He thinks you’re completely straight. If you tell him you aren’t, at least he’ll consider you.”

“ _Consider_ me. You’re making it sound like I’m applying for a job or something.”

Percy gives him a strangely stern look. “ _Stop_ changing the subject. I’m serious. Look, you asked me to help you with this Nico stuff for a reason, okay? And we’ve really only been messing around before. This is the phase something actually starts to happen. But that’s only if you go through with it and don’t wimp out.”

Jason sighs. He understands what Percy’s trying to do but Percy doesn’t get it, not really. There’s a reason Jason’s kept his distance from Reyna, even though it’s a crappy reason. And there’s also a reason he hasn’t told Nico about his bisexual status yet, and _that_ is a very good reason.

“I can’t tell Nico I like guys, okay?” he says miserably. “I just can’t.”

Some of the hard glint comes out of Percy’s eyes. “What? Why not?” When Jason just shakes his head, Percy sits down next to him and says, “Hey, if you’re nervous about it, you can tell me. Or if you’re still scared of coming out or something…”

“It’s not that,” Jason interrupts. He looks around to make sure no one’s listening in, but the campers are all busy swordfighting. “I mean, it’s still difficult, telling people I don’t only like girls. It’s going to take a lot of time to get used to it. But I’m not _scared_ of telling people, especially not Nico – I mean, he’ll get it, right? Obviously. But – I don’t – I don’t want to tell him because I know it’ll just, you know,” he makes a vague explosion-ish motion with his hand, “ruin everything.” He looks at Percy from the corner of his eye. “Am I making sense?”

Percy’s frowning, obviously not used to seeing Jason this flustered. “Not really,” he says. “How would it ruin everything?”

“Because,” Jason starts, rubbing a hand on his face. “Look, the whole reason Nico’s fine with people knowing he’s gay is because he knows it’s not something to be ashamed of. And he knows that because _I_ told him that. During that whole thing with Cupid, he was so sure I was going to start treating him like a freak or something, but I didn’t. That’s what made him realize it was okay, right?”

Percy nods. “Right.”

“Well, how will it look when he realizes that the whole time I was telling him liking boys was okay that _I_ liked boys myself?”

Percy frowns. “Uh, sympathetic?”

“No, Percy,” Jason says, “It’ll seem like I was trying to convince _myself_ that liking boys was okay. Don’t you get it? If he finds out, it’s just going to automatically make my words mean less. Sure, now he knows everyone’s fine with him being gay. But how would it look if the first person who actually said it was okay was only trying to convince himself of it too?”

“Were you?”

“Of course not,” Jason says. “But that’s not the point. I know it’s not a problem but _Nico’s_ always been doubtful about it, hasn’t he? He’s only just now started to be okay with it. I don’t want him to revert back to thinking he’s _wrong_ or something.” He shakes his head and sits back. “And I don’t – I don’t want him to get mad at me. Or think I’m not his friend or don’t care about him or…” he gives Percy a sidelong glance. “Yeah.”

Percy doesn’t say anything, just stares at the campers. Jason rubs a hand over his head – Drew really cut his hair short – and looks off in the distance. The campers finish practice soon and Percy tells them the usual – which of them improved, which need to improve, an idea of what he’ll teach during the next class, then the general “good work, everyone” and sends them off. 

When the two of them are alone again, Percy turns to him and says, “Can I be honest?”

Jason shrugs. “Sure.”

Percy squints. “That was just… really dumb.”

Jason’s face goes slack as he stares at him. Did Percy Jackson of all people really call him dumb? _Percy_ called him _dumb_?

“Yeah? How so?” he crosses his arms, trying not to sound defensive but failing miserably.

Percy rolls his eyes. “Relax, okay? I’m not calling you dumb, I’m just saying you’re really underestimating Nico.”

“No I’m not. How am I underestimating him?”

“Dude, you really think Nico is dumb enough to think that just because you said something that applies to both of you, that makes it less true?”

Jason frowns. Is Percy out-logic-ing him? How is this possible?

Percy’s smile widens at Jason’s confusion. “Jason,” he says in a voice that is weirdly gentle, (what in Hades is even happening anymore?) “It doesn’t matter _why_ you said it, okay? What matters is that it’s true. People fall in love with people – whether they’re both boys or both girls or one of each doesn’t matter, not really. You were telling him that simple fact. You’re scared he’ll hate you because now he’ll know it applies to you? Well, it _always_ applied to you. You told him you can’t help who you like, right? Isn’t that true for everyone?”

Jason’s frown deepens. “Yeah, I guess.”

“You guess? Come on, man, did you choose to like Piper?”

“No.”

“And did you choose to _not_ like Reyna?”

“No.”

“And you didn’t choose to have a gigantic crush on Nico di Angelo, did you?”

Jason glares at him. “No I didn’t.”

Percy nods approvingly. “Nico didn’t choose to like me, either. That’s what you showed him. That it wasn’t his fault, he just _is_ that way, just like the rest of us _are_ the way we are – gay, straight, everything in between. And the rest of us – me, Annabeth, Piper, Leo, everyone – might’ve accepted him now too, but _you’re_ the one who made him realize that there’s nothing for him to be afraid of. If you tell him that – hey, you like dudes now too – that just proves what you were saying, doesn’t it? That it’s fine to like whoever, and the people who matter won’t judge him for it – like we don’t judge you or me or anyone.”

Percy’s eyes are clear and reassuring. There’s a strange lump in Jason’s throat. He glares down at his hands. He thinks about all the times Nico’s looked at him gratefully when he’s assured him there’s nothing wrong with him, all the times he’s thanked him or told him he was a good friend.

“I just don’t want him to think I didn’t mean what I said,” he mumbles. “That I was only saying it to myself.”

“He won’t,” Percy reassures, putting a hand on Jason’s shoulder. “If anything, this will just show him that liking someone of the same sex doesn’t make you a freak. I mean, you’re the farthest thing from a freak for him, you know.” He squeezes his shoulder. “Seriously, man, all this does is put you in the same boat. In fact, it’s going to make stuff better – now he’ll know he actually has a shot with you.”

Jason smiles at him. “Yeah, I hope you’re right.”

“I am,” Percy says knowingly, “So this is Phase 3. You apologize to Reyna and you come out to Nico. Easy, right?”

“Easy,” Jason mutters to himself. He takes a deep breath. “So where can I find them?”

~*~

When he enters the Big House, he expects to see Nico and Reyna chatting quietly. What he sees instead is the two of them sitting on the couch in the living room, looking at Leo in the most mesmerized way as Leo motions enthusiastically with his hands and tells them about a gigantic fire ant he came across in the woods a few days ago. This is sort of unexpected – partly because Nico and Reyna are people Leo doesn’t really get along with, but mainly because Jason himself hasn’t been seeing much of Leo lately.

By the time the war ended, they all knew about how Leo had washed up on the island of Ogygia, fallen in love with Calypso, and sworn on the River Styx that he would find a way to get her back. There had been a lot of awkwardness between him and Percy those first few weeks after they found out but they were past that (as far as Jason knew, anyway). Now Leo kept himself busy trying to figure out a way to get back to her. Jason wasn’t completely sure how Leo planned to do it – something about a crystal and an astrolabe and Festus too – but Leo worked so hard at it and with so much concentration, Jason really didn’t doubt that he would find a way. It worried him sometimes, especially when Leo worked through dinners or lunches or when he was up awake all night because a new idea had occurred to him. He’s tried to help Leo tons of times but always managed to make it worse, to the point where Leo almost set him on fire out of frustration. Now he just supports him and prays to Zeus he’ll finish his project soon.

Leo looks up when Jason steps in, stopping mid-sentence to say, “Well, well, well, look who finally decided to _grace_ us with his presence!” 

Jason rolls his eyes. At least some things never change, and one of those is (sadly) name puns. “I had a class,” he says and then turns to the couch where Nico and Reyna are sitting. “Hi, Reyna.”

She nods and says, “Hello, Jason,” back. There isn’t any coldness in her voice, which encourages him. She isn’t wearing her praetor’s robes or armor – just a Camp Jupiter shirt, jeans and a jacket with a few medals pinned on it. Her glossy hair is in a long pretty braid that hangs over her shoulder and she’s sitting back comfortably, one ankle crossed over the other, looking like she was enjoying whatever story Leo was telling her and Nico about. There’s a glass of lemonade in front of her that Jason knows for a fact tastes like dirty dishwater. She doesn’t seem to have drunk any of it yet, thankfully.

Nico’s sitting close to Reyna – or, at least, close for him – and is looking at Jason almost suspiciously, like he expects him to start madly electrocuting her or something. Jason thinks it’s _extremely_ cute how protective he gets about Reyna and Hazel. Percy says it’s kind of stupid because it’s not like Reyna or Hazel need him to take care of them but whatever, Jason still thinks it’s adorable.

That being said, he hates the wary way Nico’s looking at him. What’s even worse is that Nico has reason for looking at him that way. Jason really needs to get this sorted out with Reyna.

No time like the present, right?

“I need to talk to you,” Jason blurts. 

Leo, Nico and Reyna stare at him. Nico blinks. “Me?” he says.

“Uh, no,” Jason says. “Reyna, actually.”

Reyna just coolly raises her eyebrows. “What about?”

“It’s kind of private.”

Nico frowns, his eyes flitting between the two of them. Leo’s Cheshire grin is huge. Of course it is. He knows exactly what Jason wants to talk to Reyna about. Percy probably told him all about Phase 3, the traitor.

Leo leaps to his feet, stretches and says, “Come on, di Angelo. We can mess around together. I always did want to know if you can set ghosts on fire.”

Nico gives Reyna a questioning look. “Go ahead,” she says, “I’ll see you later.”

“Fine by me,” Nico says. He follows Leo outside but not before giving Jason a look that says: _You’re my friend and we had lots of fun talking last night but if you do anything even remotely hurtful to her, I will gut you like a fish._ Jason doesn’t even know how he managed to fit all of that in one expression. He is equal parts scared and in love.

Once Nico and Leo are gone, Jason sits down on the armchair next to the couch. Reyna puts her hands in her lap and looks at him expectantly. This is the moment Jason realizes he doesn’t know what he’s meant to say. Isn’t Percy supposed to help him through this? Some wingman he is.

_“Just talk to her and get into the best-friend-rhythm.”_

Just talk to her. Okay then. How hard can that be? What’s the worst thing he could _possibly_ –

“That lemonade’s really gross.”

Oh dear _Zeus._

Reyna blinks. “What?”

Jason motions to the glass, hoping his face isn’t as red as it feels. “It’s, uh, really bad. I know because when I first came here, Chiron gave me some. Almost made me want to leave.”

She watches him for a bit and then shrugs. “I tried some. It isn’t that bad.”

“Oh. I guess it, uh, it’s just me then.”

“Probably,” she agrees.

Jason nods, looking anywhere but at her. He’s very painfully aware of how awkward he’s made this situation. If he was talking to anyone other than Reyna, it’d probably just keep being awkward. Reyna doesn’t do awkward, though. 

“Well, you said you wanted to talk in private. We’re in private. So what did you want to talk about, Jason?” she says, sitting forward. She looks curious to know what he’ll say even though he’s pretty sure she already knows. 

He hopes she doesn’t hit him too hard when he apologizes for being a complete jerk for, oh, about a year. 

He takes a deep breath and forces himself to look her straight in the eye. He wants her to know he means it. 

“I’m sorry,” he says.

It’s hard to look right at her. She’s looking at him all piercing-like. He feels like he’s being examined. She’s got her patented poker face on so he can’t really tell what she’s thinking herself but he’s glad to see she doesn’t look hurt. Just calculating. The only thing she gives away is a slight raise of her eyebrows, something that says: _Oh, we’re doing this now, are we?_

“Why are you apologizing?” she says finally.

He frowns. He can’t help it – it’s just the wording of the question that gets to him. She isn’t asking him why he’s sorry – she’s asking him why he’s telling her he’s sorry.

He could further his jerk status and tell her he wants to be her friend so Nico will like him. But for the first time since this stupid Operation Blue Bananas thing started, it’s not about Nico. It’s not even about Jason – and really, it’s been that way for too long.

“Because,” he says, “I hurt you and I never meant to.”

She doesn’t even miss a beat. “Then why did you?” She doesn’t even look surprised or hurt. It’s like she’s been expecting this to happen.

“Well,” he starts, “I suppose part of the reason was that I was too worried about the war to think about anything else. And…” he hesitates, but he’s being honest here, right? “And I had Piper so I just kind of…” he gestures with his hands, hoping she’ll get it.

“Forgot about me,” she says, and for the first time her poker face cracks. It’s only for a second but he can see the hurt in her eyes.

“No,” he says quickly. “No, I didn’t. I mean, not completely. Whenever we weren’t fighting monsters or trying to figure out the prophecy, I _always_ thought about what I would say to you whenever I could.”

“You had plenty of chances to do that,” she points out.

“I… I know,” he says glumly. “I guess I just… whenever the time actually came to talk to you, I backed out.”

Reyna raises an eyebrow. “You didn’t think it was important to give me some closure?”

“I did,” Jason insists, “Of course I did. But I think I just convinced myself that I didn’t need to – that you would be fine. I just made it out to be not as urgent as it was. I just kept putting it off and making excuses and, well…”

“Here we are,” Reyna says. She nods and sits back, looking at her hands. It’s complete silence for a few minutes and finally, when he’s about to say something probably really stupid, she says, “Is this about Nico?”

He blinks. “Nico?”

“This apology is very sudden, so it makes me wonder… Are you apologizing to me because you want Nico to see you as a _nice guy_? So you’ll be in his good books and you can have a chance with him? Is that the only reason you’re saying sorry?”

Jason stares at her, frozen, the words _No of course not!_ on the tip of his tongue. Then she looks up and there’s that look on her face, the look he used to be able to see through so easily, the one that said she wasn’t going to like what you’ll say but that doesn’t mean she’s going to tolerate your comforting lies either.

“Yes,” Jason says. “I mean, at first, yes. Percy was the one to tell me that I needed to become friends with you to become _anything_ with Nico.”

“Yes, I heard he was your _wingman_ ,” Reyna frowns.

Where is she hearing all this stuff anyway? “I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean it that way though,” Jason says, “He’s not exactly subtle and he kind of shouted at me that I shouldn’t become friends for you just for Nico’s sake. And he’s right. I’m apologizing to _you_ and this really has nothing to do with Nico anymore.” He takes a deep breath. “So no, this isn’t about me having a chance with him. Not at all.”

She examines him for a while and then, surprisingly, a small smile pulls at her lips. “It makes sense for Percy to shout,” she says, “He must know what you feel like.”

Jason frowns, confused. “Huh?”

“You’re guilty about me, aren’t you?” she says. “That much is obvious. I’m sure Percy’s still guilty about Nico. He probably wishes he could apologize to him the same way.”

Jason’s frown deepens. “I’d never thought of it that way.” He shakes his head. “But that isn’t the same.”

Reyna raises her eyebrows. “Really? How so?”

“Because Nico still likes Percy,” he says, “And, well…” He looks at her sideways. “I mean, I _hope_ you don’t, but… I don’t want to assume anything, so…”

She looks at him blankly for a few seconds but then it dawns on her what he’s saying. And she rolls her eyes. Which, well, just makes him feel like a self-centered jerk. “Jason, that’s all ancient history now,” she says, “Don’t worry, I don’t have any feelings for you anymore. Honestly, did you really think I would after all this time?”

“Not really,” Jason admits, “But I don’t know much about how girls work, so…” He sighs. “Still. I’m sorry for leading you on.”

“I’m sorry about that too,” Reyna says. “But honestly, I had a lot of things on my mind those months too. You weren’t one of us that forgot about the other person. I really haven’t felt that way about you for a long time. I just wanted you to at least acknowledge your mistakes. For the sake of friendship.”

Jason perks up at that. “Friendship? So we can be friends then?”

Reyna shrugs. There’s a smile on her face that says _well duh we can_ but instead she says, “On one condition. You have to promise to not ever hurt Nico. Because if you do, not only will we not ever be friends, but I will make sure you pay for it.” She pauses, staring him right in the eye. “I still know how to dispose of a dead body, Jason.”

And yeah, he’s intimidated – a lot more than he was with Nico because Nico honestly seems like a playful puppy next to Reyna – but he also can’t help but snort and say, “You’ve only ever disposed of one dead body, and that was a dead goldfish that you flushed down the toilet when we were eleven.”

“I’m sure I could manage to flush you down a toilet too.”

“You’d need a pretty big toilet.”

Reyna tilts her head, pretending to think, and then says, “No, not really.”

“Hey!” Jason protests, and then she laughs, a cheerful, slightly controlled Reyna laugh. He laughs too. It feels nice and easy and something that might just be a best-friend-rhythm. He’s sure there’s still going to be a few problems between the two of them but at least they’re getting somewhere now.

The door to the living room creaks open and Nico appears, seeming surprised to see the two of them laughing together. He leans against the doorway, hands in his pockets, hair falling in his eyes. “You two having fun?” he asks.

Reyna shrugs. “We’re okay,” she smiles. 

“What did you talk about?” Nico says, looking over at Jason suspiciously.

“It was nothing, kid, relax,” Reyna rolls her eyes. 

Nico gives her a look that says _you’re going to tell me everything later and you know it_ and says, “I ran into Annabeth. She says she wants to talk to you. She’s in her cabin right now so you should go.”

“Uh-huh,” Reyna says, raising an eyebrow at Nico. Jason half-expects Nico to start motioning his head towards the door, he’s being that obvious. 

“I suppose I’ll see you later then, Jason,” Reyna says as she gets up.

“Yeah, you too,” he says, following her out. He and Nico stand on the porch of the Big House and watch her go towards the cabins, Rachel joining her on the way.

“She seems happy,” Nico notes.

He’s standing entirely too close to Jason. The smell of earth radiates of off him, and something that smells intoxicatingly like chocolate. Jason has to physically restrain himself from just _falling_ on top of him. “She does,” he answers, eyes still trained on Reyna’s and Rachel’s retreating backs.

“So you didn’t hurt her.”

“No. I wouldn’t do that.”

“Good. I don’t have to kill you now.”

“I’m relieved.” He tries to sound sarcastic but it doesn’t work, which is obvious by the way Nico snickers. 

“Please tell me she threatened you bodily harm at least once,” Nico says. “I’ll be disappointed if she didn’t.”

“She threatened to flush me down a toilet, if that counts.”

“It does. It’s a funny image too, so that helps. Don’t know how you’ll manage to fit in there, though.” He sounds like he’s trying hard not to laugh and if Jason has a goal in life, it’s making Nico di Angelo laugh at any and all times.

“Are you kidding? Contorting my body so it fits in a toilet bowl for other people’s entertainment is the only thing I know how to do in life, Nico.”

Nico bursts out laughing. Jason scoffs and says, “And now you’re _laughing_ at me. After all those contortionist classes I took. Honestly, Nico, have you no _manners_?”

Nico scrunches his eyes closed as he laughs, tipping his head forward, clutching the railing of the porch as if he’ll fall otherwise. His silky hair bounces and catches the light and his skinny frame shakes with laughter. Jason watches him with a smile on his face.

He even _laughs_ perfectly. Do you see what Jason has to deal with?

Despite how much Percy pushed him to come out to Nico, Jason really doesn’t plan on saying anything – at least not now (other than probably a few flirty jokes about how contortionist classes left him _really_ flexible, if you know what I mean) but before he knows it, he’s blurting out, “I’m gay.”

Nico stops mid-laughter and stares at him. Which is just horrible because he stops laughing. Also because Jason just announced he’s gay – which he isn’t even! He’s bisexual.

He should probably mention that.

“I’m bisexual,” Jason says, in the exact same tone of voice. Nico just stares at him even more.

Percy’s wise (ha!) words don’t matter to him anymore – he’s pretty sure Nico’s going to scream betrayal at him and run away. He wants to melt into the floor and never ever have to face Nico ever again. Ever. This was such a bad idea.

Nico opens his mouth to speak.

_This was such bad idea._

“So which is it?” Nico asks.

Jason doesn’t realize he’s bracing himself for a backlash until he registers what Nico has said. He relaxes his shoulders and unscrews his eyes and says, “Huh?”

Nico looks completely calm and unaffected. “Gay or bisexual?” he asks. “Which is it?”

“Uh. The second one?”

“Is that a question?”

Jason clears his throat. “No. It’s the second one. I mean, I like girls. And, uh, boys. Both.”

Nico nods. “Okay.”

It’s Jason’s turn to stare at him. Nico must sense his discomfort because he smiles reassuringly at him. Jason’s used to hearing from people how creepy Nico is, but his smile helps to calm him down better than anyone’s could.

“You’re not angry?” he asks.

“Why would I be angry? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Jason, but I can sympathize.”

“Well, yeah, but,” Jason splutters, looking for words, “Aren’t you surprised?”

Nico shrugs. “Not really. I kind of already knew.”

He says it completely off-handedly. As if Jason hadn’t been worrying himself sick about coming out to him for the first time in forever. And now he finds out Nico knew all along? That was just anti-climatic. Also kind of a relief, but he isn’t letting Percy know that.

“Who told you?” Jason asks. “How’d you find out?”

Nico leans against the railing next to Jason. “I just heard it here and there,” he says. “From Piper and Leo sometimes, and Percy and Annabeth. They never realized I was listening in. The only one who really told me was Drew, though.”

Jason raises his eyebrows. “Drew? Drew Tanaka?”

“Yeah, Piper’s sister. She mentioned it to me one day. I didn’t really believe her but then I guess I just started paying attention and I realized she was right.”

Of course she told Nico. Drew had been trying to set Jason up with every guy in Camp Half-Blood ever since she found out he liked guys too. When she crossed a line (by trying to set him up with _Leo_ of all people), he’d finally told her he liked Nico. She had probably been trying to hint at Nico to ask Jason out or something. Apparently, she’s even nosier than Percy, which is hard to be.

“I know, I probably shouldn’t have,” Nico says, jarring Jason out of his thoughts. “It wasn’t any of my business – I should’ve waited until you were ready to tell me yourself.”

Realizing Nico probably misunderstood the anger on his face as being directed at him, Jason quickly shakes his head. “No, it’s fine. It doesn’t bother me. I was more worried about what you’d think.”

“Worried? Why would you be worried?”

“I just… didn’t want it to change anything between us.” Jason shrugs.

“Yeah?” Nico leans closer. “Like what?”

“You know, our friendship and stuff.”

“How would you liking guys change _our_ friendship?” Nico raises his eyebrows.

It takes Jason a few seconds but then he notices the playful look in Nico’s eyes and realizes – _holy schist –_ he was _suggesting_ stuff. 

Nico di Angelo was _flirting_? With _him_?

First, Percy gives him advice that actually helps. Then Reyna doesn’t break his face when he talks to her. After that, Nico doesn’t separate his skeleton from the rest of his body when he tells him he likes guys. And now he’s flirting with him?

Could this day get any weirder (and better)?

 _Smooth, Grace, be smooth,_ Percy says in his head. _Don’t mess this up._

“Well,” Jason starts, and his voice thankfully doesn’t crack, “I suppose, uh, certain kinds of changes wouldn’t be bad. What I meant was I don’t want us to be _not_ friends anymore.”

“We’re always going to be friends,” Nico smiles. “Don’t worry. I already knew, remember? This doesn’t change anything.”

“Nothing? It doesn’t change anything _at all_?” Jason tilts his head. “Some changes are good, you know.”

He doesn’t know whether it’s something he says or the way he says it or an expression on his face, but Nico’s smile fades a bit and his eyes darken as he looks up at Jason. But it’s not a sad look on his face, the one that makes Jason want to wrap him in his arms and tell him everything’s fine.

No, the look on his face is nothing like that. It’s actually kind of (read: extremely) _hot_.

They’re standing a lot closer than they were a few seconds ago. The ends of Nico’s bangs catch in his eyelids and he’s still staring at Jason with big liquid eyes. Jason’s mouth feels like cotton. He swallows but the dryness in his throat won’t go away. He can’t stop staring at Nico’s lips. He knows he should – Nico can probably _see_ him staring at his lips – but he can’t. He wants to throw caution to the wind and kiss him right now. To hell with everything else.

Maybe if Nico had stayed there like that, Jason might have done it. Maybe Nico would’ve even kissed him back.

As it so happens, though, Nico shifts his weight and Jason snaps out of it. He steps back, feeling his ears go red. Nico’s looks away and starts staring at his feet. Jason thinks he might be blushing too but he can’t see his face through his bangs.

They lapse into silence during which Jason goes through the past minute or so, decides that _yes he was about to kiss Nico di Angelo and Nico di Angelo was going to_ let _him kiss him_ and then proceeds to scream _HELL YEAH_ in his head multiple times while mentally doing the Macarena (Percy and Leo are his back-up dancers).

Finally, he decides to say something before he bursts out into joyful laughter. “Hey,” he starts, “Do you have anywhere to be today?”

Nico lifts his head and _yes_ , there is definitely some pink to his cheeks _hallelujah_ _praise Zeus!_ “No, not really.” His voice is raspy. Jason should just kiss him right now.

“Great,” Jason beams, “You can hang out with me during lessons. I don’t really have many left. Then we can just do whatever.”

That perfect smile comes back. “Do whatever?”

“Yeah. We can play some Mythomagic like yesterday if you like. Or hang out with Leo – you could probably find a way to help him fix Festus. We could even explore the woods, look for those giant fire ants everyone’s been talking about seeing. Or we could spar! You could teach me some of your moves if you want. _Or_ we can…” he breaks off when he realizes Nico’s grinning at his enthusiasm and he’s starting to sound like a dork. “I mean, we can do whatever.”

Nico nods. “Okay. Let’s go do whatever, then.” He sends Jason a smile – _heyyy Macarena!_ – and the two of them leave the porch, walking side-by-side with no real destination in mind.

~*~

Jason spends the whole day with Nico. He catches Percy looking at them about a million times, self-satisfied smirk firmly in place. He winks at Jason each time he catches his eye and when Jason rolls his eyes, he laughs obnoxiously loud, annoying everyone within a fifteen-feet radius including Jason and Nico themselves, and swaggers off and honestly Jason just _loves_ that guy.

The two of them do spar for a good while and then get interrupted by Reyna, who challenges them to a fight and then kicks both their butts. Annabeth comes over to say hi to Nico and before they know it, the four of them are sitting around, laughing and joking. Nico sits really close to him, Reyna and Annabeth look at them two of them knowingly, and the day is just _awesome._

Nico sits with him during lunch and dinner even though there’s a Hades table only for him, but no one tells him off (probably because he’s Nico _freaking_ di Angelo). They share stories and form inside jokes. Their knuckles brush whenever they reach across the table for their glasses and their feet tangle together underneath the table. Leo is wiggling his eyebrows from the Hephaestus table, Grover throws him a thumbs-up sign when he passes behind Nico, and even Mr. D is looking at the two of them with interest. Jason really doesn’t care though. He’s having too much fun to.

They sit side-by-side during the campfire sing-along. Nico taps his feet to the music and laughs when Jason attempts to sing. At one point, Jason’s hand lands on top of Nico’s and Nico doesn’t move it away. They stay that way for a few minutes – almost holding hands but not quite – before Jason realizes his is starting to sweat really badly and pulls away.

They end the day in the Hades cabin, just like the day before, and decide to have a game night. They play so many games of Mythomagic in the Hades cabin, Jason loses count. Nico wins all of them, though. Jason then introduces him to mortal board games. Nico completely sucks at Scrabble (Jason thanks the gods he doesn’t have dyslexia) but he’s almost as good at Monopoly as Hazel is, which is just completely unfair. Jason spends the whole time whining about how _real friends don’t bankrupt each other_ and _ZNFEOQ isn’t a word, Nico, what are you even doing_ while Nico laughs himself hoarse.

After they pack up the boards, it gets dark and quiet and so do their talks. Nico tells him about his never-ending life in the casino, about Bianca and about hell. Jason tells him about growing up with Lupa, the best and worst things about living in Camp Jupiter, the weight of his responsibility of defeating the Titans at Mount Tam and what it had felt like to actually _do_ it. When it’s the darkest, Nico whispers to him the really vague things he can remember about his mother. Jason can’t remember his at all.

When conversation strays to their friends and Jason’s telling him how awesome a best friend Leo is, he tells Nico that he probably feels the same way about Reyna.

“And you,” Nico replies like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, “You’re my best friend too.”

Jason tells himself the warmth in his chest isn’t him falling in love.

He’s spent time with Nico before but never like this – hours and hours of just hanging out, talking about every little thing that crosses their mind ( _You ever think the world’s going to run out of songs one day? Like, there won’t be anything new that hasn’t already been played?)_ or every big thing they think about at night ( _I think Thalia and Bianca would’ve been really great friends. Best friends, even_ ). 

By the time it’s lights out and Jason has to get back to his cabin, he’s already toying with the urge to kiss him. But he doesn’t. As great as this night is, this has been the first time Nico’s given him any real indication that he might feel the same way. It’s too early to act on that urge. 

He goes to sleep feeling better than he has in ages. He can’t believe he almost didn’t listen to Percy this morning. If he hadn’t, he might not have realized that Nico maybe probably _hopefully_ likes him back. All this time, he’d been so doubtful of a lot of the stuff Percy was making him do but the guy obviously knew what he was talking about. So far, everything he’d done had been a success – even if it was always way out of Jason’s comfort zone.

Everyone always said it so off-handedly: _Nico likes you._ It had come to the point where Jason heard it every day but it went through one ear and out the other. He had no reason to believe it was true and he wasn’t going to get his hopes up about it. That would just lead to heartbreak.

But now – now he thinks he actually has a chance. A really _good_ chance. And he’s not going to mess up.

He goes to sleep with a smile on his face and a whole world of possibilities swirling around in his head. His heart feels like it’s swollen to twice its size.

And when he wakes up the next morning and looks around for Nico, it splits cleanly into two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reyna is queen and Reynico friendship is what dreams are made of tbh.  
> Like Percy said, this is where the stuff starts happening. I was just goofing off before haha. There have been too many cuddles and happiness in this fic so naturally, we'll need some pain and crying to match it.  
> The song lyric is from Empty Apartment by Yellowcard which is a complete Jason and Reyna song and you should listen to it right now.  
> (Also sorry for the late update but this is a longer chapter, so... I'll try to be quicker next time, though.)


	5. All Your Perfect Imperfections

“He left?” Jason asks. His voice is small and hurt and the look in his eyes vulnerable. “Why?”

Percy and Annabeth exchange looks. It’s right after breakfast and Jason is still sitting at the Zeus table, where he had just looked off gloomily into the distance instead of actually eating. Everyone else had gone off for morning classes but Percy couldn’t leave Jason like this. Now, as he and his girlfriend stand in front of Jason, he can’t help thinking he looks so much like a little kid, which was weird because Jason’s one of the most powerful half-bloods Percy has ever met (toe-to-toe with Nico).

Speaking of Nico, Annabeth’s saying something about him.

“…to do with you, Jason,” she says, sitting beside Jason, “He just needed time to himself. Whatever he dreamed about last night – it must’ve been really traumatic for him.”

“So to get over that, he went to the _Underworld_?” Jason says incredulously. “Shouldn’t he come to his friends so they can help him? Shouldn’t he…?” He breaks off quickly but Percy knows what he was going to say. _“Shouldn’t he come to me?”_

Percy moves to sit on his other side. “We don’t know if it really is the Underworld where he went,” he says, “He might have just said that to Chiron so we wouldn’t follow him.”

“Which means he might be in some dark alleyway in the middle of nowhere, and that’s even more dangerous. At least in the Underworld he has his dad. Guys, we need to go after him.”

“But if we don’t know where he went…”

“He’ll have told Hazel, right? He always tells Hazel. We could ask her.” He looks at them with pleading eyes. “We need to get him back.”

Annabeth sighs. “Jason, listen,” she puts a hand on his shoulder. “Nico does this all the time. He up and leaves and never tells anyone where he’s going. And no one asks because we know he can take care of himself. If we followed him, he’d just run farther away.”

Percy nods. “Annabeth’s right. We should just wait for him to come back. That’s what we always do and he always comes back once he’s better.”

“Well, in case you haven’t noticed, what you always do is _not_ what you should,” Jason says. His words are sharp but he says it so sadly, there’s no anger in them. “Nico’s been alone his whole life, he doesn’t need that anymore. He’s got friends now. We should go and try to comfort him, like we would comfort each other.” He grasps Percy’s arm. “You know what he’s like – if we don’t do anything, he’s just going to assume we don’t care about him.”

“No, he knows better than that,” Annabeth says firmly. “Right, Percy?”

Percy doesn’t answer. He has to admit, Jason’s kind of right. No one at Camp Half-Blood, with the exception of Jason, has ever given Nico any reason to think he’s wanted here. The only reason he hangs around here a lot more now is because Jason’s here. Percy’s sure if Jason moved to Camp Jupiter for a few days, Nico would start appearing there a lot more.

“Look, I _know_ him, okay?” Jason continues. “We need to go after him. If he did have a really bad nightmare or he hallucinated or…”

“Hallucinated?” Annabeth cuts in. “Nico _hallucinates_?”

Jason’s jaw clenches like he really didn’t mean to say that. “It’s just really bad for him, alright?” he says quietly. “All the Tartarus stuff. I know it’s bad for you too but at least you guys have each other. He has no one.” He turns to Percy with pleading eyes. “He needs me.”

Percy glances at Annabeth. She shrugs like: _Do what you think is best._ Jason looks at him like he actually _knows_ what’s best. And he’s meant to, right? He’s the wingman.

He turns around, spots Mrs. O’Leary lapping up water at the pier’s edge, and whistles to get her attention. It’s not loud enough to carry all that way but she must have super-hearing because she turns around and bounds her way over to him.

He stands up and starts scratching her around her ears. “Do me a favor, Mrs. O’Leary?”

She woofs, tail wagging back and forth. 

“Can you go over to the Underworld and check if Nico’s hanging around?” he asks. “He’ll probably be in Hades’ palace. You don’t need to go to him or anything – just check if he’s there and come back and tell me, okay?”

In reply, she smears her gigantic tongue all over Percy, then flops it over Jason’s face too before bounding away into the woods.

“Looks like she’s decided she likes you,” Percy says to Jason.

Jason wipes his face clean. “She understood what you said, right?”

“Of course she did. Dogs are really smart, and gigantic friendly hellhounds are even smarter. She’ll tell us if Nico’s there and then you can go to him.”

Some of the tension drains out of his friend’s eyes. He smiles at Percy, relieved. “Thanks, man. I can’t…”

“I’m not done,” Percy says, “You can go to him, but what are you going to say to him?”

Jason frowns. “I don’t know. I’ll think of something. We’ve talked about Tartarus before. I’ve always seemed to be able to comfort him.”

“He just relived a trauma really badly, Jason,” Annabeth reminds him. “The usual things you say probably won’t calm him down this time.”

“What do you mean?” Jason asks worriedly.

“I mean that part of the reason Percy and I always stick together whenever either of us get nightmares is because we’re the only people who can comfort each other. No one else knows what it was like down there. Whatever everyone else says to help us are just meaningless words – no offence.”

“So you’re saying only you and Percy can help him?” Jason raises an eyebrow, obviously offended anyway.

“No, that’s not what she means,” Percy says, “She means if you want to help him, you have to know a little more about what it was like in Tartarus than you already do.”

Jason’s eyes widen. He looks between the two of them suspiciously. “Uh… you aren’t going to, like, throw me in Tartarus or something, are you?”

Annabeth rolls her in the _you’re so dumb how have you survived this long honestly_ way that she usually reserves for Percy. “I wish,” she mutters, to which Jason gives her a half-hearted glare. “Actually, this was Percy’s Phase 4 all along.”

“And if we’re going to the Underworld,” Percy adds, “We can get Phase 5 out of the way too, which would just leave…”

“Whoa, whoa, hold on,” Jason stands up. “Back up. What’s Phase 4 again?”

“Well, it’s basically just Tartarus,” Percy says.

“So you really are going to toss me in there?”

“No, dude. Look, you want to date Nico, right? Well, becoming his boyfriend’s easy – he likes you and you like him and as soon as one of you has the guts to do it, you’re going to start dating. But if you want to _stay_ his boyfriend, you’re going to need to know how to deal with him having these traumatic episodes. You can’t expect to date him for a long time and _not_ know how to comfort him.”

“So that’s Phase 4? You’re going to tell me how to comfort him.”

“I’m going to try,” Percy corrects. 

“And how are you going to do that?” Jason asks. “I remember a few months ago when you told me that no one can imagine the horror of Tartarus unless they’ve experienced it themselves.”

“I’m not looking to traumatize you, man,” Percy says. “I don’t want you to know what it was actually like. I just want you to understand what Nico feels during these panic attacks and how to make it better. Who can help you at that better than the two of us?”

“Alright, enough chit-chat,” Annabeth stands up. “Come on, both of you. I need to show you something, Jason.”

~*~

Percy’s been in the Athena cabin countless times and he’s seen her pull books and papers from practically every nook and cranny of the place. Some of the planks of wood that made up the walls of the cabin are actually drawers stuffed full of papers and now he watches as Annabeth hooks her fingers underneath a plank of wood right above her bed and pulls the drawers open. She pulls out a gigantic roll of paper, like one of her sheets of blueprints, except this isn’t blue (sadly).

She starts to pin it up on one of the boards in the cabin and Percy helps her. He hears Jason inhale sharply.

“It’s a map,” Jason murmurs almost reverently, “Of Tartarus.”

“Bingo,” Percy mutters.

“But how…?” Jason says, turning to Annabeth. “In the myths, they only describe some parts of Tartarus – there’s no map. How did you…?”

“I didn’t get it from the myths,” Annabeth says, pinning the last of it up and stepping back. “I made it from my own memories. It’s not accurate, of course, but…” She shrugs.

“Annabeth finished it just last week,” Percy adds, “She’d been making it for days.”

“Why?” Jason asks.

“I don’t know,” Annabeth says, “I just felt like it.” 

Her eyes dart to Percy’s. Jason doesn’t understand but Percy does. No one would relive their worst memories to draw the most traumatic event in their life just because they ‘felt like it’. Percy remembers the days when Annabeth would have a nightmare and he would find her hunched over this map in the morning, drawing furiously, trying to chart all those horrors out. He would sit and put his arm around her shoulders, pull the pencil from her fingers. He knows she wants to make sense of what happened to them down there and that’s why she thinks maybe if it’s on paper, drawn from her own hand, erasable, changeable, that it might make it better.

He understands that it’s her weird coping mechanism but he also knows that you can’t control Tartarus. It’d be complete craziness to try. 

He gets really worried for her sometimes but it isn’t as bad as it could be. At least she sleeps all night now and doesn’t cry anymore. Percy’s managed to limit his own panic attacks to once or twice a month himself. 

Jason approaches the map and runs a finger through the unfortunately named River Phlegethon. It looks like a thick fiery snake curving through the darkness of the pit. Percy wishes Annabeth wasn’t so good at sketching – he can practically hear the roar of the firewater, almost feel the burn as its spray hits his legs, almost _see_ the…

“Percy,” Annabeth cuts through his thoughts. “Are you listening?”

He opens his eyes and stares at them. He can’t even remember closing them. His palms are really sweaty and his heart feels like it wants to knock out of his chest.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” he says.

Annabeth narrows her eyes. “You were slipping, weren’t you?”

“ _No_ , I was just… taking a nap?”

Annabeth rolls her eyes and then takes his hand, which makes him feel a bit better. “Slipping?” Jason asks.

“That’s what we call it,” Annabeth nods, “It’s basically when we start thinking about Tartarus so much, it feels like we’re back there and not here. Like all of this,” she waves her hand, “is a dream and that,” she points at the map, “is the reality.”

Jason’s eyes widen so much, it’s kind of funny. He looks at Percy with his Furby-sized eyes. “That happens to you?”

Percy shrugs. “Sometimes. I pull myself out of it most of the time, or Annabeth does. It’s really not that bad.”

“You think it happens to Nico?”

Percy glances at Annabeth, who hesitates. “I think,” she says carefully, watching for Jason’s reaction, “that it might have been what happened to him last night, and why he left.”

Jason stares at her for a while and then back at the map, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He’s glaring at it so hard, it’s a miracle he hasn’t burned two little holes through it. “And no one was there to pull him out of it?”

“It’s not your fault,” Annabeth says quietly, “No one’s _ever_ there to pull him out, remember? This has probably happened to him tons of times so he knows the drill by now, how to distract himself so it doesn’t take over him.”

And yeah, she’s trying to comfort him but it’s not really working. He can see a nerve jump in Jason’s jaw and is kind of scared he’ll start throwing off sparks. He doesn’t need reminding that no one takes care of Nico the way Percy and Annabeth take care of each other.

Annabeth must realize this because she shoots Percy a look like _do something._

“Look, man,” Percy says. “It doesn’t matter what happened in the past, okay? We’re trying to tell you this so you can take care of Nico whenever this happens to him in the future. You want to do that, right?”

“Of course I do,” Jason says, still looking at the map. “But I don’t understand _how_?”

“It’s really not that hard,” Annabeth puts in. “Whenever you think Nico’s started to think about this place again, distract him. Call his name, even.”

“But how am I supposed to know what he’s thinking about?”

“There are tells,” Percy says. “Like if he goes pale really suddenly…”

“He’s _always_ pale,” Annabeth points out. “More obvious tell is when he’ll get that just-seen-a-ghost look on his face.”

“He sees ghosts all the time, Annabeth, that’s his normal face.”

“It’s just an expression, Percy, honestly.”

“Well, I _know_ it’s an expression, Annabeth, an expression is the same thing as a _look on his face_.”

“Oh my _gods_ , I didn’t mean that kind of expression, you idiot…”

“Guys?” Jason cuts in, holding up his hands. “Can we get back to Nico again?”

“Oh, _you’d_ like that,” Percy rolls his eyes. “Look, just avoid mentioning Tartarus in conversation in the first place. If you don’t mention it, he won’t think about it, and he won’t slip.”

“Except he could start thinking about it himself,” Annabeth points out. “Whenever that happens, he’ll either get really withdrawn or he’ll look really horrified, like he’s just seen the worst thing in his life. Which he sort of has.”

“If he’s touching you,” Percy adds. “His skin might get really cold and clammy. His fingers might start shaking.”

“If his whole body starts shaking and he doesn’t respond to you, that means you’ve let it get too far. Then you just have to ride it out.”

Jason frowns. “Ride it out?”

“I mean he’s already slipped. There’s not much you can do now other than be there for him.”

Jason worries his lip. “So when you say ‘slipped’ does it mean he sleeps or what?”

“Well,” Percy says, “he’ll close his eyes. But he won’t be sleeping, that much will be obvious. He’ll shake and sweat a lot and he’ll speak just as loudly and clearly as you do every day. It’ll be like a really vivid nightmare.”

“Nightmare,” Jason murmurs and then groans and collapses into a chair. “I had no idea this was so bad! You guys have to go through with this every day? Why didn’t you tell any of us?”

“Why would we?” Annabeth replies. “It would just make you feel guilty that you couldn’t help us, just like what you’re doing right now. It wouldn’t have made any difference whether or not we told you.”

“Except now it does,” Percy says, sitting next to him. “You can help Nico and that’s why we’re telling you.”

Jason gives him the saddest puppy dog eyes Percy has ever seen. “Yeah, but still… I wish I could help you guys too.”

“Well, if you get together with Nico, you’ll apparently be fulfilling one of Percy’s greatest wishes,” Annabeth says with a small sarcastic smile on her face. “So that’ll be helping him, won’t it?”

“You’re being sarcastic,” Percy tells her, “but it’s true.”

He sends one of his huge grins at Jason – something Rachel calls his ‘signature _how can you not love me I’m Percy Jackson_ smile’ – and Jason rolls his eyes and sends a little smile back ( _haha take that Rachel_ ).

“So tell me,” Jason says, sitting forward, “How do I help Nico if he’s already slipped?”

“You’ll learn that through trial and error, actually,” Annabeth says, eyes roving over the map, “But there’s a few obvious things you should and shouldn’t do. If it happens to Nico in public, get him away from people as fast as you can. It’ll probably be easy for you especially, since you can fly.”

“Okay. But why do I need to do that?”

“Nico’s going to see himself as still in Tartarus but his subconscious knows he’s still with us. Some part of him can still pick up the things going on around him and if people start screaming or shouting around him – which they will if he starts panicking right in front of them – then it’ll just be a sensory overload. It won’t damage him or anything but it’ll definitely make the experience even more traumatic than it already is.”

“What do I do once we’re alone?”

“You hold him,” Percy says simply. Jason raises his eyebrows at him. “I’m serious. There’s not much you can do for him now but if you hold him, he’s going to know you’re there. That’ll help.”

“Yeah, but don’t squeeze him or anything,” Annabeth continues. “You’ll get the urge to, and it might feel like the right thing to do at the time but it’s not. There are a lot of places to suffocate in Tartarus – lots of things that make you think you can’t breathe. If you do anything to make that harder for him in real life, it could make things worse.”

Percy nods. “Yeah, like, see on the map? The River Cocytus? It’s water if you want to get down to it, but it’s not really – I hard to try really hard to control it, and once we were underwater, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Or the Mansion of Night – there it is – it’s kind of sort of _really_ terrible, so I wouldn’t be surprised if…”

“Percy,” Annabeth interrupts. “Not helping.”

Percy blinks and looks at Jason. He’s got the same worried-slash-frustrated face on that Annabeth gets whenever she can’t solve a puzzle or a problem. 

“No,” Jason says quickly, “It is. It’s helping. Please go on. I need to know everything.”

Annabeth gives Jason a concerned look. Percy knows Jason must be worried sick right now, thinking of all the things Nico had had to go through last night, and those too in his own head. Maybe if it was something physical, Jason could’ve fixed it for him. But it wasn’t – it was Nico’s own mind turning against him. How is Jason supposed to fix that? Percy can’t imagine ever feeling that powerless where Annabeth’s concerned. But he knows he’ll do anything to help her if he could.

“Okay,” Percy continues. “Uh, well, you should keep saying his name. If he hears you, it’ll let him know that what he’s seeing isn’t real. A lot of the times, he’ll follow your voice back.”

Jason frowns. “What if he doesn’t hear me?”

“That won’t be a problem, he will,” Annabeth says, “The real trouble is if he sees something there that’ll make him want to stay or ignore your voice.”

The color literally drains out of Jason’s face – Percy can honest-to-goodness see it go. “What would that be?”

“Percy usually sees me, Grover, Tyson or his mom,” Annabeth looks at him like _you dork_ which Percy knows by now is Annabeth-speak for ‘I love you’. “Or you guys, even. The same goes for me – family and closest friends. On worse days…” she chews her lip, “We see other friends, the ones who’ve died.”

“We always follow each other’s voices back, though,” Percy takes her hand. He turns to Jason. “Knowing Nico, it’ll probably be Bianca he sees. Maybe Hazel too but Bianca’s more likely, I think.”

“How am I supposed to get him to follow me instead of her?” Jason runs a hand through his hair. 

“That’s the point,” Annabeth says, “That’s why Percy and I are usually the only ones who can help each other. You have to love the other person enough to leave everything behind for them.”

Something like pain flashes through Jason’s eyes. Percy sits up. “Hey, no, listen,” he puts his hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Nico will do that for you, okay? I know it. He’s not dumb, he knows Bianca’s dead. There’s no way he can get her back. He knows that more than anyone – he’s tried enough times, hasn’t he? Trust me, he’ll follow you back.”

Jason just rubs at his face. “I guess we’ll see.” He peers at the two of them. “Is that it? Get him alone, hold him and say his name a lot?”

Percy wrinkles his nose. “Well, _that_ didn’t sound perverted at all.”

“There’s more,” Annabeth talks over him, “Don’t panic yourself, obviously. If you’re scared, keep the fear out of your voice or that’ll make it worse. If he starts saying names of people who are dead, call him harder. And whatever you do, don’t ever – ever – make fun of the things he says or does during that time.”

Jason gapes. “I wouldn’t do that! How cruel do you think I am?”

Percy sniggers. “Dude, you have no idea the things Annabeth says when she…”

“Percy!” Annabeth’s face is pink. “I was having a very traumatic moment and you…”

“I was worried sick that you were dying or something,” Percy finishes, “But you have to admit, in retrospect, the stuff you said…”

Annabeth throws a stapler at him. Percy ducks and starts laughing but Jason looks horrified. Percy knows why – Jason doesn’t have a very good history with staplers.

“Don’t mind her,” he says to Jason, “She makes a hell of a lot more fun of the things _I_ say than…”

“You screamed ‘release the blue pizza’ while you thought you were fighting a drakon,” Annabeth deadpans. Jason laughs this time and Percy is just _betrayed_.

“See?” Annabeth says to Jason, “It isn’t all bad. There’s not much you can do, I know, but at least you can show Nico that he doesn’t need to let this control his life. He’ll be sad a lot – especially after a nightmare – but it’ll go away by the next day.”

“Unless he has a nightmare again the next night,” Percy puts in. “That’s really bad news. If it keeps happening, you should probably tell Chiron. Otherwise it could really mess with Nico’s mind.”

Annabeth nods. “Judging by how strongly Nico reacted to last night – packing up and leaving – I’m guessing either he slipped really badly or he had a nightmare for the second or third time in a row.”

“But why would he go to the Underworld?” Jason asks. “Isn’t that the last place you should go if you’re looking to heal?”

“Not for Nico,” Percy says, “He lives there, remember? His dad is there and he’s made friends with the ghosts. It’s probably like another home to him.”

“It’s not like Hades is going to do anything for him,” Jason grumbles. 

“Actually, he might. Hades does care for Nico – in his own way. Oh, hey, speaking of which…”

There’s a loud _SLAM_ as the door swings open and a huge dark dog’s muzzle peaks through. It’s quickly replaced by a gigantic slathering tongue that flops around the doorway, and a pair of thin dark lips, yapping and calling for Percy.

“Okay, Mrs. O’Leary, we’re coming,” Percy calls, standing up. “Did you find Nico?”

In reply, Mrs. O’Leary tosses something inside. It flies through the air and lands on Jason’s lap. 

A skull ring. Well, a really wet, drool-covered skull ring. Jason picks it up gingerly.

“Great,” Percy beams. “Come on, man, it’s time for Phase 5.”

Jason’s eyebrows shoot up. “Five? We’re done with four?”

“Well, yeah.”

“That was _it_?” He motions to the map.

“Kind of.”

“Are you serious?”

“Um… yes?”

Annabeth snorts from where she’s packing up the map. “You should know by now, Jason, that none of this is thought out. Percy’s been winging this from the beginning.”

“That’s not true!” Percy protests. “I know exactly what I’m doing, okay? I planned all of this _days_ ago.”

“I’m sure.”

“Annabeth Chase, you shush right now or I won’t ever cuddle you again. And you!” he points at Jason, who actually _jumps_. “Come with me.”

Jason glances at Annabeth. “Aren’t you coming?”

She just raises an eyebrow as she fixes her ponytail. “I’ve been involved way too much in this Blue Bananas thing, Jason,” she says. “If I do another phase with Percy, I’ll go insane.”

Percy’s about to threaten her with no cuddles until they die (and by ‘until they die’ he means ‘until the next time she wants cuddles’) but he’s sort of distracted by the fact that her shirt rises up when she fixes her ponytail and _oh gods this is not the time for this Jason Grace move your sparky butt_

“Jason Grace,” Percy commands, tearing his eyes away, “Move your sparky butt.”

“Excuse me?” Jason splutters. 

Percy just ignores him, drops a kiss on Annabeth’s cheek, grab’s Jason collar and bodily drags him out the cabin to where Mrs. O’Leary’s waiting (to lather them with her drool, that is).

“Can you just tell me one little thing?” Jason asks as they get on top of her furry back, after getting thoroughly drooled on.

“Shoot,” Percy tells him.

“What exactly _is_ Phase 5?”

Percy can’t help the smirk that slides over his face. Jason looks vaguely terrified. “Long version or short?”

“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?” Jason sighs, resigned, “Short.”

Percy’s grin widens. He feels positively _evil_. “You’re going to get Nico back, obviously,” he says, “But you’re also going to meet the family on the way.”

Jason blinks at him disbelievingly. “You don’t mean…”

“Yup! Get ready to meet your future boyfriend’s dad. Make a good impression, okay? You don’t want in-laws that hate you.”

He’s fairly sure Jason almost electrocutes him but before he can, Mrs. O’Leary jolts forward and the world goes to darkness as they melt into shadow.

The last thing he sees is Nico’s skull ring sitting on Jason’s pinky finger – and, well, he can’t help but laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know! This is horribly short and not much even happens but I'm going on a trip for the next whole week so I won't be able to write or post anything until it ends. I'm really sorry if this is disappointing! I'll make it up with the next one.  
> Also, in other news: I can't write angst.   
> The chapter title is from All Of Me by John Legend.


	6. Come Right Back To Me

The first thing Jason sees when the darkness around him separates is a colossal three-headed dog staring down at him, it’s thin lips pulled back to bare huge fang-like teeth – it’s three times Mrs. O’Leary’s size and obviously not half as friendly. What happens next is really not his fault.

By the time the smoke clears and the blinding light fades, the huge dog is lying ten feet away from Jason, Mrs. O’Leary even farther, and Percy…

“Percy!” Jason cries. “Percy, where are you?!”

He’s so sure he’s killed him. Why can’t he ever control his stupid powers? It’s bad enough he starts throwing sparks when he gets nervous – electrocuting people when he’s startled is way over the line, especially when his decidedly not-very-immune-to-electricity friend had been sitting _right_ in front of him. 

“Percy!” Jason bellows, taking to the air. “Percy, where…?”

In the distance, Mrs. O’Leary rolls over to reveal a still body underneath her. Panic clogs Jason’s throat as he zips over, praying to every god he knows that he hasn’t done what gods and Titans couldn’t do and has actually _killed_ Percy Jackson.

He drops to his knees beside Percy and grabs his wrist. The steady beat of Percy’s pulse throbs under his wrist and relief _floods_ through him. He slumps against Mrs. O’Leary’s body – which is smoking from the electricity – and shakes his friend with trembling hands. “Percy,” he says. “Percy, wake up, will you?”

Percy’s hair is standing on end and his fingers are twitching worryingly but he lets out a low groan and mumbles, “Why are you trying to kill me, Jason?”

Jason lets out a deep sigh of relief. “I’m sorry,” he says, helping Percy sit up, “I just saw that huge thing,” he points in the direction of the dog, “and freaked.”

Percy rubs at his eyes and squints. “You mean Cerberus?”

That sparks a little snippet of the myths in Jason’s mind. “He guards the entrance of the Underworld, right?” Jason says, “He keeps the dead from escaping and the living from getting in here. So he was stopping us too?”

“Obviously,” Percy coughs.

“How are we supposed to pass him?”

“Well, usually we’d go with red rubber balls. Seeing as you just electrocuted the Hades out of him, I don’t think we need the balls anymore.” He gives Jason a pointed look.

“Sorry, man,” Jason winces, “I really – I just freaked. Sorry. You’re okay, though, right?”

“Only because Mrs. O’Leary threw me off in time,” Percy says, reaching out to pat her nose. 

“Is she going to be okay?” Jason says, worried. She’s still knocked out but her tongue is lolling around and her tail shakes a few times.

“She’ll be fine,” Percy says fondly, “She’s had worse. But she won’t wake up for a while, which means it’s on foot for the both of us now. Help me up, will you?”

Percy slings his arm around Jason’s shoulder, who heaves the two of them up. While Percy shakes the feeling into his legs, Jason looks around.

The whole world around them is black and red and bronze. The sky above is black as night, except without the starts, and in every direction he looks he sees rolling dark hills – with the exceptions of a few ghostly-white fields in the distance, a glowing city even farther away, and a towering dark palace in the centre of the whole thing area. 

They’re standing a few feet away from a long line of (dead) people moving under a metal detector and moving towards a toolbooth. Jason cranes his head and realizes there are two more lines just like these, except one moves a lot quicker. If Jason squints, he can see the faster line moving towards a field of wheat – which, if Jason can spot from this distance, must be pretty large. 

With a jolt, he realizes that must be the place Hazel talks sometimes – the one place she neither hates nor loves but has no feelings towards. The Fields of Asphodel.

“Ow,” Percy mutters, “Dude, can you stop with the electricity already?”

Jason yanks his eyes away from the field. “Sorry,” he says, “Are those the Fields of Asphodel? Where Hazel used to live?”

Percy follows his gaze and the annoyed look fades from his face. “Yeah, but ‘live’ isn’t the best way to describe it, is it? More like ‘stay and do nothing’.”

Percy’s right – Hazel’s told them tons of times that she did nothing at all while she was in the Fields. Just sat under a tree and watched her surroundings for eternity. Percy’s tone sounds disgusted, like he can’t imagine doing nothing forever, which is understandable with his ADHD. Jason, though, just thinks it’s sad.

“We’d better start moving,” Percy fidgets. “You just electrocuted Hades’ pet dog – no doubt the Furies are already…”

“We meet again, Percy Jackson,” a raspy voice comes from behind them. Percy closes his eyes and slaps his face in exasperation.

Jason turns around to see three leathery old hags sitting on a gray tree behind them – except all three of the hags have a pair of black bat wings. The one in the middle bares her fangs at Percy. 

“You know them?” Jason whispers to him.

“The middle one, at least,” Percy says miserably, “Meet Mrs. Dodds, my math teacher.”

“Wait, what?”

Percy’s math teacher hisses at them. “My name is _Alecto_ ,” she says, sounding weirdly offended, “The _greatest_ of the three Furies, the leader! And you, Percy Jackson, have…”

She’s interrupted by the other two screeching at the same time and shoving at her. 

“The greatest?” one of them screams.

“And who says you’re the greatest?” the other one adds.

“The lord Hades trusts me the most,” Alecto hisses back, “He assigns me with the duties he would carry out himself. He trusted me with his own _children_ …”

“Nico!” Jason suddenly remembers what he’s here for in the first place. “You work for Hades, don’t you? Nico’s here, isn’t he? Is he at Hades’ palace? Is he…?”

As if they’ve choreographed this before, the three Furies clap their wings over their ears and shriek all at the same time, which sounds about as melodious as the time Leo serenaded Frank with _Eye of the Tiger._

“Too many questions!” the right-most Fury wails.

“Poseidon and Zeus!” the left-most one hisses angrily, “Children of Poseidon and Zeus in Hades’ realm! An abomination!”

“It’s Jupiter, actually,” Jason says, which turns out to be a mistake because they start screaming even louder.

“You intrude into the lord Hades’ dominion,” Alecto snaps at them, “You attack his guard Cerberus. You will be punished, son of Jupiter. Take them to Hades’ court!”

The other two Furies swoop off the branch and before Jason has time to even think about flying away, they’ve got both him and Percy clutched between their talons.

“Hey, hey – ow!” Percy complains as his Fury jostles him around. “I didn’t even say anything, why are you – ow!”

“Percy, keep quiet!” Jason whispers to him urgently, “At least they’re taking us to Hades’ palace – Nico might be there too!”

“You and your _freaking_ Nico – hey, keep your claws to yourself, lady!”

They spend the whole flight with Percy shouting at all three Furies while Alecto hisses back at him, all against a background of the sound of the Furies’ flapping bat wings and the muffled tortured screams of the dead from below. Jason thinks he’s going insane and only one thing keeps him from actually losing his mind: he has to get to Nico before Hades kills him and Percy for hurting his dog. If he’s going to die, he might as well tell Nico what he means to him. That way, the pain of rejection won’t be very long-lasting – he’ll be dead the next second. It’s a great plan, probably a hell of a lot more effective than Percy’s blue bananas project.

Hades’ palace looks sort of like pictures of Sleeping Beauty’s castle in Disney World that Jason’s seen – except much bigger, black and bronze, and full of jagged sinister-looking ramparts. It’s dark and a there’s a sense of foreboding surrounding the whole palace. Jason can’t imagine Nico living here, let alone calling it home.

There’s about a mile of garden in front of the palace. They’re too far up to see it but Jason spots a large bunch of pomegranate trees smack in the centre of the garden, glowing in the darkness. The fruit looks so juicy and wholesome, Jason strains against the Fury’s talons to reach it – but then the Furies swoop through an open window in the palace and they’re suddenly in Hades’ throne room.

It’s a long, empty hallway – done in black and bronze – with a gigantic dark throne made of skulls at one end. The Furies unceremoniously drop the two boys onto the sparkling black marble floor – it’s studded with rubies and emeralds, which would be pretty in any other situation – and fly up to the empty throne, perching themselves on the armrests.

“Hades will be here soon,” Alecto warns as Jason and Percy stand up, dusting themselves off. “And he will be harsh with you, oh yes! He is the god of the Underworld – no one _dares_ step into his kingdom without his permission, let alone attack his creatures. He will punish you for even _thinking_ of…”

A bronze door from the side bursts open and a man stalks in, followed by a group of grey-green ghosts, all chattering at the same time, trying to get his attention. The whole hall is suddenly filled with their chattering, which sounds almost as bad as the Furies’ screeching. The man is tall, pale, a cross between skinny and well-built, and had gaunt features. He currently has his hands fisted in his hair, messing it up, and a look of frustration – and slight craziness – in his eyes. Jason doesn’t really blame him – if those ghosts were following him all day, talking all at once, louder and louder to get his attention, he would lose his mind.

Finally, the man whirls around, his long dark robes rippling around him, and roars, “Enough!”

The sound reverberates throughout the whole room and Jason has the mortally embarrassing honor of being the one who actually _flinches_ while Percy just rolls his eyes. The ghosts don’t even react, like this happens every day.

“But my lord,” one of the ghosts, a woman in a long flowery dress, starts.

“No buts!” the man says quickly, sounding (and looking) like a disheveled parent trying to tell their naughty hyperactive kid to go to sleep.

“But my lord,” the same ghost continues, “The Fields of Asphodel will never run out of space at any rate, I don’t see why we can’t…”

“Helene, for the last time,” the man says exasperatedly, “I am not going to build an amusement park in the Fields of Asphodel.”

The ghost, Helene, actually pouts. “Aw, why not?”

“Because I said so! Next you’ll be asking me to put up an ice cream parlor in the Fields of Eternal Damnation.”

“Well, now that you mention it…”

Another ghost – sort of evil-looking Roman wearing a toga, with hollow cheeks and permanently raised eyebrows – shoulders his way forward. “My lord!” he says, “What about my idea? Why don’t we…?”

“Your idea is horrible, Cassius!” one of the ghosts calls from the back. “Taxes in Elysium – are you out of your mind?”

“Lord Hades will never have to worry about money ever again!” he counters.

“I am the god of wealth!” Hades roars. “I don’t need to worry about…”

“Ooh, ooh, but what about having a _karaoke night_ with all the dead, lord Hades?” Helene says brightly. “We could…”

“That’s such a groovy idea,” a ghost dressed in tie-dyed clothes slings an arm around her and looks up at Hades with drooping eyes. “My singing is just far out, brother.”

Hades looks like he’s half a second away from destroying everyone in the room. Thankfully, Alecto saves them. She sits up on her haunches and lets out a demonic screech into the air.

“Be gone, ghosts!” she screams. “Lord Hades has other business to attend.”

“What other business?” Hades snaps. He turns around and then his eyes land on them. Weirdly enough, they skip over Percy and narrow at Jason. The god’s eyes are just as deep black as Nico’s, and even with the distance between them, Jason feels like he’s being x-rayed. It’s enough to get him nervous and he fights to control the sparks crackling on his palms.

The ghosts are still squabbling among each other, vying for the god’s attention and goofing off – he sees two of the ghosts playing thumb war with their mutilated thumbs – all at the same time. Hades turns to them, announces, “Go annoy someone else,” and flicks his wrist. The ghosts all disintegrate into white smoke, still arguing among themselves.

“So,” Hades says, turning around and examining Jason, “We finally meet, Jason Grace.”

~*~

Hades manages to collapse on the throne like he doesn’t care who’s watching and make Jason feel extremely intimidated at the same time. Percy and Jason bow, like they’re meant to. The skulls embedded in the throne smile gruesomely at him, which is almost as disconcerting as Hades’ gaze. 

Jason manages to clear his throat and speak up. “You, uh, know who I am?”

“Well, obviously,” Hades deadpans, “The boy won’t shut up about you.”

Jason’s face feels warm. Hades raises an eyebrow at him and when Jason doesn’t say anything, moves on to Percy. “And of course you would be here, Percy Jackson,” he says, sounding exasperated. 

Percy smiles widely. “I was getting bored, so I thought a walk through the Underworld sounded _delightful_.”

“If this ‘walk in the Underworld’ is to get Nico to go back to camp, let me show you the way out right now.”

“Wait,” Jason says, “So Nico _is_ here? Where? Can I see him? Is…?”

Hades puts his hands on his temples and lets out a frustrated roar. “Too many questions! I have been dealing with too many questions all day! Do you know what it’s like to have a band of ghosts following you around, talking your ear off all the time, boy?”

“Uh… not really.”

“No! You don’t!” Hades has a slightly crazy gleam in his eyes and Jason is not-so-slightly scared. “I can’t even do anything to them because they’re already dead!”

“Well,” Percy starts, and Jason already knows he’s going to say something dumb. “You could just dismiss them, like you did right now.”

Hades glares at him. “Yes, and then they can come right back! Don’t antagonize me, Jackson, or I might just…”

“Yes!” Alecto suddenly croons. “Yes, my lord, kill them!”

Hades’ angry expression melts into confusion. He looks up at the Fury. “What for?” he says, like he didn’t just threaten Percy himself.

“What _for_?! Sire, they broke into your realm! That boy right there is the one who harmed Cerberus.” She points with one claw.

Hades lowers his eyes to Jason. “Did he now?”

“It was an accident,” Jason blurts. “I’m really sorry – he was right in my face and I just reacted without thinking about it.”

“A son of the sky god using his powers in your kingdom?” Alecto says to Hades.

Hades off-handedly points a finger at Percy. “That one used his powers here too.”

“Then kill him too!”

“Hey, let’s calm down, okay?” Percy steps forward, holding his hands up. “Jason didn’t mean to kill Cerberus and he apologized for it. I didn’t mean to do whatever I did once upon a time and I maybe probably apologized for it too. Can we just get to why we came here in the first place?”

Alecto hisses at Percy because of course she does, but Hades sits forward and raises his eyebrows. “And why exactly did you come here in the first place?”

Jason gives Percy a curious look. “Yeah, why did we?”

Percy just shoves him forward. “Lord Hades,” he announces, “It really doesn’t matter if you give your permission or not, but I thought you’d like to know – Jason wants to date your son now.”

Everything seems to stop for a split second, including Jason’s heart. Then it starts beating overtime, thudding in his ears, knocking against his chest. His face positively _burns_ under Hades’ gaze and he starts to convince himself that Annabeth won’t be _that_ mad if he beats Percy up a bit.

Even Alecto looks shocked. She and the other two Furies start whispering to each other, looking like gossipy old ladies (with bat wings attached to them, of course). Hades just says “What,” in a complete monotone.

“What do you mean ‘what’?” Percy says. “He likes Nico, duh. Why do you think we’re here anyway? He wants to go be all supportive and stuff. But also, I thought you should know beforehand so you don’t accidentally kill Jason when you find out and then trigger another war between the gods.”

“Wait,” Hades holds up a hand. “I thought that was you.”

“That triggered a war between the gods? Well, _yeah_ , but…”

“That’s not what I mean, Jackson. I thought you were the one who liked Nico.”

“What? No, I don’t like Nico. I’m already in a relationship.”

Hades still looks confused. “With Nico?”

Percy sighs. “No, not with Nico. With Annabeth. The daughter of Athena, remember her?”

“But what about you?” Hades points at Jason.

“I’m not in a relationship,” Jason manages to squeak.

“And he likes Nico,” Percy adds. “Like I said.”

“But,” Hades frowns, looking frustrated, “But wait – Alecto, didn’t he like the son of Poseidon? Isn’t that what he said?”

Alecto actually looks very immersed in all of this, like she’s watching an episode of _Keeping Up with the Kardashians_ (and _no_ , Jason _definitely_ doesn’t watch that show). “He did, lord Hades.”

“That was ages ago!” Percy says, obviously annoyed. “Nico’s over me by now.”

“And now he likes this son of Jupiter?” Hades turns to Jason.

“Yes he does.”

“Wait, we don’t know that,” Jason says quickly. “I mean, Nico’s never given me any indication that – well, other than a few times.”

Hades nods. “But you have feelings towards my son, do you?”

Jason’s throat feels dry. Hades looks like he’s contemplating whether or not to throw Jason into the Fields of Eternal Punishment right now. But Jason’s not going to back down – he _does_ like Nico, so he raises his chin and says, “Yes.”

Something flickers in Hades’ face – an expression Jason can’t read. He stares Jason down for a few seconds and it takes all of his willpower not to look away. 

Jason isn’t sure what he expects Hades to do or say, but it’s definitely not him shrugging and saying, “Alright.”

Jason exchanges a look with Percy. “Alright?”

Hades nods. “Alright.”

Percy looks at him disbelievingly. “Alright?”

“Would you like me to say no?”

“No!” Jason says quickly. “We just… it’s really okay?”

“I said so, didn’t I?”

“But you’re not… disturbed?”

“Well, now that you mention it, it _is_ a bit disconcerting to think a child of _Jupiter_ might be part of my family one day,” Hades says, looking like he just tasted something disgusting. “But it won’t be the first time it’s happened.”

“No, not that,” Jason says. “I meant the fact that I’m, you know, a _boy_.”

Hades just lazily blinks at Jason, reminding him weirdly of a cat. “I was under the impression Nico likes it that way?”

“He does,” Percy pipes up.

“Then what exactly is the problem here?”

“Nothing. Jason’s just being stupid. So now that that’s out of the way – do you think we could go see Nico now?”

Hades throws Jason a glance. “You plan to try your luck right at this moment?”

“No,” Jason says, “I just want to talk to him. He left Camp Half-Blood really abruptly this morning after a nightmare. I want to see if he’s fine and try to convince him to come back. Anything more than that will be taking advantage, won’t it?”

Hades gives him a weirdly approving look. “It would be,” he agrees. “And you, Jackson? What are you here for?”

Percy shrugs. “Moral support?”

Hades just sighs exasperatedly and rolls his eyes. “Mortals,” he mutters and then snaps his fingers. A ghost materializes next to his throne – a dangerously skinny guy with hunched shoulders, dull eyes and a permanent scowl on his face. He looks up at Hades and says in a surprisingly strong voice, “You summoned me, my lord?”

“I did. Take that one,” he points at Jason, “to Master Nico’s room. And that one,” he points to Percy. “Toss him in the grasslands next to the River Styx with the hellhound.”

“The hellhound?” Percy says happily. “Mrs. O’Leary, you mean?”

“She’s healed,” the ghost answers, “She’s been waiting next to Styx for a long time. I will show you the way there and you will follow.” Without waiting for an answer, the ghost turns around and starts towards one of the doors lining the hallway.

“Didn’t know Casper was a control freak,” Percy mutters as he and Jason hurriedly bow down in front of Hades’ feet and start to follow the ghost out.

Just as they’re almost out the door, Hades calls, “Jason Grace – wait.”

Jason turns around and freezes. If he thought Hades was intimidating before, it’s nothing compared to the face he has on now. His eyes are as cold as glass and his posture threatening. Black smoke swirls around his feet and all of a sudden Jason notices that actual faces are woven into his dark robes – faces that scream noiselessly at him, expressions twisted in fear. His knees feel weak and it’s only when he presses his own hand against his wrist that he realizes how rapid his heartbeat has become. He remembers that Hades has the ability to induce fear and although he knew that it was fear strong enough to stop people’s heartbeat, it hasn’t registered until now how truly terrifying it really is.

“I don’t think I need to threaten you,” Hades says in a low voice that carries all the way across the hall, “But I hope you know better than to think you can harm my son in any way. If you do, being the son of the king of the gods won’t save you. After all, you’re going to end up here one day, without the protection of your father or your friends.” His eyes flicker momentarily to Percy, who looks pale and is actually shivering. “Believe me, boy, you do _not_ want to make me angry.”

Jason knows. He definitely, _definitely_ knows. Hades isn’t one of the Big Three for nothing. He rules the dead, the Underworld, heaven and hell – he’s more dangerous than Ares or Aphrodite or almost any other god Jason’s met. You can avoid all of the other gods, but not Hades. Death is inevitable and permanent. Everyone falls under Hades’ control eventually.

But more importantly, Hades is Nico’s _dad_. He matters to Nico, probably a lot, and for that reason more than anything, Jason wants to be in his good books. 

“I won’t,” he manages to croak. “I won’t hurt him. I promise.”

Hades gives him the creepiest smile in the world. “We’ll see,” he says and then sits back into his throne.

Casper leads the two of them out.

~*~

“Never seen him like that,” Percy mutters to Jason as the walk through one dark hallway after the next.

“Who?”

“Hades, duh. As far as gods go, he’s never seemed much of a threatening type. He’s kind of intimidating, sure, but he’s never acted on it before. And I never really thought he was that close to Nico but he must be if you being good to Nico matters that much to him.”

“Nico’s his son,” Jason mutters. “Of course it’s going to matter to him.”

Percy throws Jason a sympathetic look. “Don’t worry, Hades was just trying to scare you. He’s not really that bad. Anyway, you don’t have any reason to be worried about him – he’s only going to do something to you if you hurt Nico and you aren’t going to do that.”

“So that was Phase 5?” Jason asks. “Meeting Hades?”

“Yeah. Not that bad, right?”

“Dude, that was one of the scariest things in my life - and I've stared down Gaea.”

Percy grins. “If you’re scared of this, wait till you get to Phase 6. It’s the last one – and it’s amazing.”

Jason’s pretty sure his definition of ‘amazing’ is a whole world different than Percy’s, but he just shakes his head and says, “And I was meant to get Hades’ approval too, right? I don’t see why that would matter, really.”

“It doesn’t,” Percy shrugs, “I know you two are going to end up together whether or not Hades likes it. I just don’t want Hades to get angry about it and then possibly start fighting with Zeus – or Jupiter, whatever. Annabeth would kill me if I started another apocalypse – it cuts into her sleepy-time.”

A horrible thought occurs to him. “What if my _dad_ gets angry about it? What if he hurts Nico?”

Percy snorts. “Please. Like he doesn’t already know.”

“Uh, _what_?”

“Dude, your dad already knows. Thalia told him the last time she was in Olympus with her Hunters of Artemis friends.”

Well, that is just. Not right. “Why are they gossiping about my love life up on Olympus again?”

“They weren’t gossiping,” Percy rolls his eyes, “It just came in conversation. And then later, I ran into Annabeth and Thalia IM-ing and Thalia mentioned telling Zeus. And yeah, in case you’re wondering, your dad doesn’t really care whether you date a girl or a boy or a child of Hades or a child of Aphrodite.”

At least there’s _some_ non-disturbing news. Jason breathes a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I was worried he would judge.”

“About Nico being a boy?” Percy asks. “That would be kind of hypocritical of him, don’t you think?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Dude. Ganymede. Duh.”

“Oh. _Oh._ ”

Percy nods solemnly. “Yeah. Your dad is hella gay, man.”

Well, at least Jupiter will be supportive of him and Nico – if ‘him and Nico’ ever happens. “Hella,” he agrees.

The ghost in front of them abruptly stops and turns around. It isn’t until the two of them almost walk right into him that they realize they’ve reached the door to Nico’s room – a tall black door engraved with scenes of death in bronze. It even has a knocker in the shape of a skull with ruby eyes and a snake hanging from its teeth, which is tacky as hell (pun unintended). 

The ghost doesn’t use the knocker, though. It just commands, “Wait here,” and walks through the door like it owns the place.

“Hey!” Jason cries, reaching for the ghost that’s already gone. “It can’t just walk into there like that.”

“Why not?”

“He didn’t even knock! What if Nico’s in there changing clothes or something?”

Percy stares at him for a second or two and then a strangely perverted smile spreads on his face. “You’re imagining him naked, aren’t you?” he sniggers.

And, well, he really wasn’t. But now that Percy’s mentioned it… “No!” Jason almost shouts, trying to clear his thoughts. “I don’t think like that, okay? I’m very respectful of him and – _stop laughing_!”

Percy’s still hideously chortling and Jason’s still red in the face when the door opens to reveal and decidedly not-naked Nico. Percy immediately tries to muffle his laughter while Jason glares at the stupid ghost. Not for long, though, because Nico’s wearing an over-sized T-shirt and his hair is all silky and messed up and there’s pillow creases on his cheek and he manages to look like a little kid when he rubs his eyes with his knuckles and then does a complete one-eighty and looks kind of insanely attractive when he runs his hand through his hair and really, Jason can’t take it anymore.

Just when he’s about to kiss the crap out of him, Nico blinks up at the two of them ( _there is a freaking EYELASH on your stupidly perfect cheek Nico why do you do this_ ) and mumbles, “What are you doing here?”

Jason’s too busy gaping at him so Percy answers. “We came here to see you,” he says. “How’re you feeling?”

A little crease appears between Nico’s eyebrows. “I’m fine. You really don’t need to worry about me.”

“Well, you left so suddenly…”

“I told Chiron why I did.”

“Yeah, we know. We just want to make sure you’re okay. And, you know, get you back to camp.”

Nico shakes his head. “I don’t need to get back to camp. I’m fine here. I’m sorry you came all this way but you should go back now.”

He reaches to close the door. A sharp elbow pokes into Jason’s side urgently and Jason blurts, “Wait!”

Nico pauses and looks up at him. “Yes?”

“Do you think we could talk? In private?” Jason steps forward.

Nico sighs. “You think you’re going to convince me to come back. Trust me, Jason, I’m better off here.”

“No you’re not,” Jason argues. “Look, can’t we just talk for a second? Please?”

He gives Nico the most pleading look he can manage. Nico just sighs again and turns to Percy. “What about you?”

“Oh, don’t worry about me. Our ghostly friend here’s going to help me meet up with Mrs. O’Leary. She got electrocuted, thanks to _someone_ ,” he sends a glare at Jason, who ducks his head, “so I’ll make sure she’s okay and by that time you guys will probably be done and we can all go back.”

Nico frowns at the last part but nods and turns to the ghost. “Please take Percy to his hellhound, Lagos – and check to see if she’s really healed. Lagos used to be a physician back in Ancient Greece,” he adds to Percy.

Percy beams. “Great! After you then, Legos.”

The ghost glares at him. “My name is _Lagos_ , you imbecile.”

“Lagos,” Nico says sharply, “Don’t be rude.”

Lagos just scoffs and does an incredible eye-roll usually mastered by angsty thirteen-year-olds. Percy smiles at Nico gratefully. “Both of you come quick, okay?” he says, “And don’t worry, Nico, it’ll all turn out fine.”

“Okay,” Nico says automatically.

“No, really,” Percy says, taking hold of Nico’s arm. “I mean it. You really don’t need to worry. It seems bad now but trust me, it’s going to be alright.”

Even though Jason can tell Percy’s doing his best to reassure Nico, he’s no charmspeaker like Piper is. Despite that, though, Nico looks at him with big eyes – worry and fear and a little bit of hope mixed into them. Jason telling Nico that everything’s going to be alright is nothing compared to Percy telling him the same thing – Jason’s just going to just be saying it while Percy’s been through the same torture Nico was. He knows what he’s talking about. 

If Jason needed any proof that Percy is better at comforting Nico than he is, this is it.

Percy glances at Jason from the corner of his eye and removes his hand from Nico’s arm. “I’ll see you guys later,” he says. Jason nods at him and he and Nico watch as Lagos leads Percy away.

“Well,” Nico says, turning to him, “You’d better come in then.”

~*~

“How’d you get here anyway?” Nico asks once they’re inside. “I’m guessing my father didn’t kill you for coming here, obviously, but did Mrs. O’Leary shadow travel you?”

Jason’s too busy looking around the room. It’s dark just like the rest of the castle but it looks better. It’s not black exactly – it’s done in dark blues and deep browns, all of which give the room a decidedly warm look. Nico’s bed is gigantic, takes up almost the whole room and is flanked by two little tables to the sides. It’s got pillows on top of pillows and dark sheets and even a _canopy_ overhead. There’s a large mirror framed with precious jewels and set into a wall next to what Jason assumes is the closet, a few comfy chairs placed next to a table, and there’s only one other door in the room which he thinks might lead to the bathroom.

All in all, it’s a very homey room. Which is not something you would expect to see in the Underworld.

Jason turns to Nico. “Uh, yeah she did.”

“She came here about half an hour ago,” Nico pads over to the bed and flops down on it. Jason realizes he’s barefoot and that the floor’s covered in a really comfortable-looking teal carpet. He takes off his own shoes and sinks into one of the armchairs.

“She got all excited when she saw me,” Nico continues. “Then she batted off my ring with her paw and left.”

“Oh, right,” Jason says, sitting forward. He plucks the ring off of his pinky finger. “Here.”

Nico looks surprised. “You were wearing it?”

“Well, yeah. I was keeping it safe. And it wouldn’t fit on any of my other fingers.”

“You could’ve put it in your pocket.”

“It’s a cool ring, okay? Sue me for wanting to wear it.”

A smile flickers over Nico’s face and for the first time, Jason realizes how tired he looks. The bags under his eyes are deeper, his skin looks sort of sickly, and there’s a reddish tint to the whites of his eyes. His nose looks a bit pink too which might mean he’s been crying – and that is just not acceptable at all.

Nico takes the ring from him, their fingers brushing. “Thank you,” he says as he slips it back on. Jason just watches him. He keeps his eyes downcast as he continues, “You really shouldn’t have come. I’m sorry but it was a wasted trip.”

“No it wasn’t,” Jason says softly.

Nico throws him a glare. “It’s my choice whether I want to go back to camp or not.”

“I know. That’s not what I mean. I came to bring you back but it’s fine if you want to stay. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“Well, I’m fine,” Nico says, “I know you’re trying to help but please – I really don’t need to be saved.”

“I know that,” Jason agrees. “I just thought you might need a friend.”

Nico looks at him curiously for a while, probably trying to see if Jason means it, which is understandable. It’s easy to form a hero complex when you’re a demigod, easy to think _everyone_ needs to be saved by you. Jason thinks he’s avoided being like that, though. Sure, he feels responsible for protecting his friends but he knows better than to think that he’s the solution to every and any problem they have.

After a while Nico looks away. Jason’s one hundred percent sure he’s going to tell Jason he doesn’t need a friend – or worse that he doesn’t _have_ any friends, so Jason should leave now. Instead Nico says, in the smallest voice possible, “I think you might be right.”

And then he shifts ever-so-slightly to the left on his bed and looks at Jason from the corner of his eye. It takes a while for Jason to realize he’s asking him to sit beside him. 

Jason complies, almost tripping over his own feet in his hurry because he hasn’t embarrassed himself in front of his crush in a while and apparently now is the time to make up for it. Nico gives him a little smile, though, so it’s okay.

Once Jason’s sitting on the bed, cross-legged and facing Nico, Nico says, “Thank you for caring enough.”

He can tell that the smile spreading on his own face is dopey but he can’t help it. “My pleasure,” he says.

“And you bought Percy along.”

Jason’s smile falters a bit. “Yeah, he wanted to come. Make sure you were doing okay.”

Nico nods. “He understands what it’s like, I suppose. It’s nice of him.”

Jason clears his throat. “I need to ask you a question.”

“Go ahead.”

“How many nights before the last one did you have these dreams?”

Nico frowns, confused, but then his face clears. “They told you, didn’t they?” he says dejectedly.

“They know I want to help you and they said that the only way to do that was to know what you’re going through,” Jason says. “Not that I’m ever going to really understand it.”

“You’re better off that way,” Nico mutters. He takes a deep breath, lets it out through his nose and then says, “It was just a second night in the row. I shouldn’t have left – I don’t know why I did. It wasn’t that bad. Usually, I can stick it out for at least the third night but…”

“The _third_ night?” Without thinking about it, Jason reaches out and grabs his hand. “Are you _kidding_?! Why didn’t you tell anyone? _Gods_ Nico don’t you know how dangerous that is for you – not just mentally but emotionally and physically and in every way there can be?! I mean _seriously_ , why didn’t you…?”

“I thought you said you were just here to help,” Nico interrupts smoothly. “Shouting at me isn’t helping.”

“I’m not shouting!” Jason shouts. “You can’t just…”

Nico slips his hand from Jason’s grasp and claps it on his mouth to shut him up. “We’re in my dad’s palace, remember? And he has a headache like ninety percent of the time – do you want him to come in here and kill you because you’re furthering his migraine?”

Nico’s hand is warmer than he’d thought it would be and smells like the earth right after it’s rained. Jason shakes his head dumbly.

“Good, so keep it down,” Nico removes his hand. “What were you saying?”

“I was…” Jason croaks, then clears his throat and continues, “You should’ve told someone that this has been happening to you. It’s not healthy to keep this stuff to yourself.”

Nico frowns. “I can deal with it myself.”

“It’s not weakness to ask someone for help, Nico.”

“I know it’s not. That’s not it. I don’t want to dump my problems on people just because…”

“Even when they _want_ you to dump your problems on them?” Jason raises his eyebrows. “Even when they matter to them more than their _own_ problems? Even when they _care_?”

Nico snorts. “Right. And who in their right mind does that?”

“Me!”

The self-deprecating look on Nico’s face melts. “You?”

“Yes!” Jason says, exasperated. “For Jupiter’s sake, Nico, what do you think I’ve been trying to tell you this whole time?”

Nico looks flabbergasted. “You _care_? About my problems? More than _yours_?”

And well, Jason would go to hell and back for him and all but it’s like talking to a five-year-old honestly. “I care,” he says firmly. “And I don’t see why you haven’t realized that yet.”

Nico’s brow furrows and his gaze drops to his hands again. “I just thought you would lose interest sooner or later.”

“You’re my best friend, Nico. I’m not going to _lose interest_ in you. It doesn’t work like that. And you would know this if you’d stayed in Camp Half-Blood. Really, Nico, next time you have a nightmare, just tell me, okay?”

“And what are you going to do about it?” 

“Whatever I can,” Jason replies, not missing a beat. 

“And what do you get in return?”

Jason rolls his eyes and says, “I get to see you smile,” without thinking. 

As soon as the words are out of his mouth, his ears start to feel really warm. He won’t take it back though – it was true, and anyway, now Nico blushing a bit so.

“And,” Jason adds so it doesn’t become awkward, “I can tell you about my nightmares. If you want to know.”

“Really?” Nico sounds curious. “What do you have nightmares about?”

Jason shrugs. “Little stuff. Nothing like yours. The other day, I had a nightmare of that one horror movie we watched at Percy’s house last month.”

“The one with the girl who comes out of the toilet?”

“It was a well, Nico, and yeah that one. And then I had a nightmare Camp Half-Blood was taken over by this gigantic snake that neighed for some reason? But then Coach Hedge karate-chopped it to death and then Rachel decided she was going to live in it – yeah, live in the _snake_ – because her cave wasn’t good enough anymore. Leo set up her sound system in there and everything.”

Nico laughed a bit – a subdued laugh but at least it was something. “Your nightmares sound a lot more fun than mine.”

“Are you kidding? I was _terrified_ in the nightmare.”

“Oh yeah, the Oracle of Delphi moves into a giant snake, real terrifying.”

“… Do you hear yourself?”

Nico laughs again, a proper laugh this time. Jason thinks it might be appropriate if sparkles erupted all around Nico whenever he laughed (he’s not going to say this out loud, though – the one time he’d mentioned this out loud to Percy, Percy’d just deadpanned, “We don’t live in an anime, Jason.”)

Nico’s hand immediately goes up to cover his mouth and muffle his laugh. Jason reaches out and holds his wrist down and surprisingly, Nico doesn’t react other than smiling at him.

“Thank you,” Nico says, “I needed a laugh.”

“I’d have a lot more opportunities to make you laugh if you came back to camp. Not to mention, it’ll be better for you to be around your friends instead of here with a bunch of ghosts.”

Nico looks down at Jason’s fingers encircling his wrist and Jason reluctantly lets go. “I like it here,” Nico admits, though Jason hears indecision in his voice, “I don’t think my father minds it when I come – he actually looks happy sometimes. Demeter tries to get me to eat cereal and oats a lot and Persephone’s not so bad anymore. She hasn’t turned me into a flower lately, so that’s an improvement.”

He’s not sure but he thinks Nico might be convincing himself. Sure, this might be his home – but it’s not where he should be if he’s going through nightmares of hell.

“People in Camp Half-Blood wouldn’t turn you into flowers either, you know,” Jason coaxes.

Nico shoots him a smile. “I’ll come back.” Before Jason can start celebrating, Nico adds, “Soon. Maybe not now. I think I need some time alone.”

Jason’s heart sinks. He doesn’t think this is a good idea at all. He can’t imagine what it’ll be like for Nico if he has a nightmare here in the Underworld. It’s the closest place to Tartarus, after all – Jason even remembers Annabeth mentioning there’s an entrance to Tartarus down here.

But it’s Nico’s choice and Jason’s not going to force him to do something he doesn’t want to. So he nods and says, “Alright. But listen, promise me…”

Before he can finish his sentence, an apparition emerges from Nico’s door and yes it’s Lagos the not-so-friendly ghost with his everlasting _just tasted something sour_ look on his face. Why in the world doesn’t the stupid ghost knock? They could’ve been making out (ha!) for all it knows.

“The other boy has a message for you,” he says to Jason.

“Okay. What is it?”

The ghost clears his throat and says in a monotone, “ _What in all Hades is taking so long? I can only make so many flower chains for Mrs. O’Leary before I collapse from boredom. There’s not even any food around. Just grab the guy and make a run for it, will you?”_

“Well then,” Jason says.

“I suppose you should go,” Nico says, sounding honestly disappointed.

“You can come too, you know.”

Nico just shrugs. “Maybe later.” He turns to the ghost. “Please take Jason to Percy, Lagos.”

“Yes, Master Nico,” Lagos says, giving Jason a distasteful look. Jason controls the urge to make a face at him.

“I guess I’ll see you then,” he mumbles, getting off the bed and putting on his shoes.

“See you,” Nico agrees, “And don’t feel bad that I’m not coming with you. You came here to help, you said – and you did. So thank you.”

The words _anything for you_ are on the tip of Jason’s tongue but he swallows them and says, “Anytime.”

Then, before he really does grab him and make a run for it, he follows Lagos out of the room.

~*~

“Took you long enough,” Percy grumbles once they reach him. “Where’s Nico?”

He’s standing a few feet away from a pitch black river which Jason assumes is the River Styx. He never thought it would be polluted but there’s definitely stuff flowing along in the murky water. It would probably give both Piper and Grover heart attacks to learn that even rivers in the Underworld aren’t free of pollution.

Mrs. O’Leary’s lying on her back on the ground and practically her whole skull is decked out in flower chains made of lavender flowers that Jason doesn’t even want to know where Percy got from. Percy’s busy trying to dislodge part of the chain from one of her teeth while her drool creates a puddle on the floor. Jason sidesteps it to get to Percy.

“He didn’t want to come,” he says. “Where’s it caught?”

“Right at the back, between those two teeth,” Percy grunts, “Why didn’t he?”

“Said he needed time alone. Why’d you let her eat the chain anyway?”

“I don’t know, she does lots of weird stuff. I thought this was just another one.” Percy tugs at the chain. “Did you give him your puppy dog eyes?”

“Not intentionally but I might have once or twice. But mine never work as well as yours do.”

Percy snorts. “Tell that to Annabeth. They never fool _her_. Hey, look it’s loosening!” Without even hesitating, the guy pokes his whole arm down the huge hellhound’s mouth and pulls the rest of the string out from between her teeth, which are, by the way, bigger than his whole face. Jason just gapes at him.

Percy just nonchalantly tosses the chain away and then pushes his head down her mouth. “I don’t see any blood. You okay, Mrs. O’Leary?”

Mrs. O’Leary lets out an affirmative whine. Jason pulls Percy’s head out before the guy splits his scalp on one her canines. That would not go over with Annabeth well.

“So what do we do now, wingman?” Jason sighs tiredly.

“She’s still not strong enough,” Percy says, “Let’s wait a few minutes before we make her shadow travel, okay?”

“No, I mean after she gets better.”

“We go back to camp, duh. If Nico wants to stay here, he stays. Besides, I have a feeling this is Nico’s coping mechanism for Tartarus. He always runs away and comes here whenever he gets nightmares so there must be something here that helps him.”

“Coping mechanism,” Jason repeats.

“Yeah,” Percy says, “Annabeth has one and so do I. So we really shouldn’t force him to come if he doesn’t want to. It’ll just make things worse.”

“Are you each other’s coping mechanisms?” Jason raises his eyebrows.

“Uggh, no,” Percy makes a face, “If we were, we’d be really badly co-dependent and that’s not good for anyone.”

“Well, knowing Annabeth, hers is probably something to do with work or architecture?” Jason guesses. Percy nods. “And yours is uh… swimming?”

Percy gives him an amused look. “That’s really stereotypical, you know. I don’t even swim that much.”

“Do you not remember the time you spent five hours at the bottom of the lake at camp and everyone thought you’d been kidnapped again and another Great Prophecy was going to start?”

Percy winces. “Oh, yeah. Annabeth almost killed me when I came out of the lake. I think she was relieved though.”

“Think? You two spent the rest of the night in the lake too – except you were doing all kinds of unspeakable things that permanently traumatized the naiads.”

“I told them to go away!” Percy protests, turning red.

Jason just shakes his head, grinning at him. “So what’s yours?”

“My what?”

“Coping mechanism. Annabeth’s is something about work, Nico’s is staying here – what’s yours?”

Percy looks thoughtful for a while and then shrugs. “I don’t have a specific thing, I guess. Annabeth says whatever makes me feel better after having a nightmare is how I cope but lots of things make me feel better. Eating and swordplay and swimming too like you said.” He paused. “Mostly talking to people though. Like my mom or Paul or Annabeth. Or Grover and Tyson – _especially_ Grover and Tyson. Juniper even – she’s the one who taught me how to make flower chains. Or Rachel, because she talks so much in one sitting and makes you focus on so many things at once, it’s hard to think about Tartarus. Sometimes I’ll IM Hazel or Frank and that helps, especially in the middle of the night because Hazel sleeps really late. And whenever Leo thinks I’m down in the dumps or whatever, he takes me to Bunker Nine and gives me a ton of things to do even though I mess up like all of them. And Piper too – the whole reason we even went on that surfing trip to Montauk was because she said I needed to get my mind off of it.” He glances at Jason. “And now there’s this whole thing with you and Nico and – yeah, it’s kind of helped me take my mind off things myself.”

There’s a nice feeling in Jason’s heart. He can’t put his finger on it but he thinks it might be fondness. “So your coping mechanism,” he says, smiling, “is people.”

Percy laughs, actually looking a bit sheepish. “Fits in with the whole excessive loyalty thing, right?” he grins. “But yeah, what you said back in Annabeth’s cabin, that you wished you could do something to help the both of us too – you already have helped me, even if you didn’t notice. So, uh, thanks for that, I guess.”

Jason’s grin feels too wide for his face. “I think I’m crying a little bit,” he sniffles.

Percy barks out a laugh. “Shut up,” he says, punching Jason in the arm. He straightens up and pats his hellhound, who rolls over and gets up too. “I think Mrs. O’Leary’s okay now so if you could stop being a sarcastic little…”

“Guys?”

Jason’s heart soars. It positively _soars_ , honestly. 

“Nico,” he says, turning around. He resists the urge to add a sentimental, “You came for me.”

Nico’s still wearing the adorably over-sized shirt but he’s got his jacket over it along with his sword and he’s wearing shoes too. He didn’t brush his hair though, which reinforces Jason’s theory that Nico must know that he doesn’t need to groom himself at all since he’s naturally perfect.

“Is there room for one more?” Nico asks. There’s still bags under his eyes and skin’s still a bit too pale but he doesn’t look like he’s been crying anymore and his smile is wonderfully bright.

“Of course!” Jason gushes. “She’s a huge hellhound; she can probably carry thirty people at once.” He thinks he sees Percy roll his eyes but he’s beyond caring.

“I thought Jason said you needed time alone,” Percy speaks up.

“I did,” Nico says, “But I think I need friends a lot more than that. I keep coming here whenever I have a nightmare and it helps but – I think staying at camp might help even better. I’ll never know unless I try, right?” He locks eyes with Jason and Jason beams. 

“Also, my father told me to go with you for some reason,” Nico adds. “Something about how Jason shouldn’t expect anything to happen if he doesn’t take some initiative? Do you know what that’s about, Jason?”

Percy looks like he’s about to burst out laughing. He gives Jason a look like _well at least Hades approves of the two of you_.

“No,” Jason says, “Not in the least.”

Nico shrugs. “He’s probably just going senile. So should we leave now?”

“Sure,” Percy says, climbing up on top of Mrs. O’Leary, who’s trying to bite at Nico’s skull ring again. “Come on up.”

Jason climbs after Percy, sitting behind him, and then bends to give Nico his arm. Nico takes hold of it and Jason hoists him up, trying to ignore the tingles running up and down his arm. He hopes it’s his nerves and not electricity – he’d hate to have accidentally shocked Nico.

“Hold on,” Percy says, and then subtly winks at Jason as he smirks and adds, “Tight.”

Jason’s about to give him a _really dude_ look but all thought melts into nothingness as Nico’s arms wrap around his waist and the rest of him presses into his back. His arms are skinny and pale but surprisingly strong, and he feels warm and comfortable wrapped around him. Jason thinks that if they ever end up dating, he’d like to be the little spoon.

“Let’s go,” Nico says, his breath puffing into Jason’s neck. The eyelash that was stuck on his cheek is on the back of his hand now and Jason puts his hand on top of it to make sure it doesn’t float away. He thinks Nico deserves one wish at least.

Percy’s grin is just ridiculous. He remembers what he said before: _“If you’re scared of this, wait till you get to Phase 6. It’s the last one – and it’s amazing.”_

Jason thinks he has an idea what Phase 6 might be. And needless to say, he is terrified.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *crosses fingers and hopes long update makes up for long wait*  
> I keep forgetting to do this but thank God for those of you beautiful people who leave me those nice comments! They seriously make my day. It's awesome to see you guys like this and I wish I could reply to all of you but I end up sounding really awkward so. (Kind of like right now)  
> Updates might be a little slow from here on out but go ahead and bug me about it on my tumblr (link's in my ao3 bio I think - feel free to laugh about my pervy moon profile pic).  
> Chapter title from Keep Me Dreaming by American Authors.


	7. All My Indecisions, All Of My Excess

Percy’s never been very confident of his intelligence but for something that’s he’s basically making up as he goes along, Operation Blue Bananas is going better than expected. Sure, he vaguely planned the phases and then tossed some out and added others and then took a nap but as far as Jason knows, he’s the best wingman in the world.

It also helps that Nico and Jason already like each other so much. Nico’s crush isn’t embarrassingly noticeable like Jason’s is but Percy thinks he’s got him figured out. I mean, really – Nico leaves for the Underworld and goes on and on about how nothing can make him come back but then Jason talks to him for like fifteen minutes and then Nico’s all, “Hmm well when you say it that way, I think I _do_ like camp better and it has _nothing at all_ to do with the fact that you live there.”

Yeah. Nothing at all.

It’s been a few days since they dug Nico up from the Underworld. Jason and Percy had told Chiron about Nico having nightmares a lot more lately. Chiron had invited him to the Big House and had a long talk with him for about an hour – Percy didn’t know what he’d talked about but Nico had come outside looking a lot better.

That was until Hazel ambushed him with an IM. Nico had gone to his cabin to talk to her in private. Not that there was anything ‘private’ about their conversation – campers could hear Hazel scolding him from twenty feet away and she was saying things that would’ve made Percy cry. He thinks it’s funny how people assume Hazel’s an adorable quiet girl who’s sweet to everyone. Anyone who knows her knows that she’s fluent in swear words (she’s even come up with a few herself), can give people anxiety with one look, and has to be frequently held back by her muscular boyfriend so she won’t damage other people’s faces out of annoyance.

“I don’t understand how Hazel can unleash so much damage when she’s so small,” Jason had said when they’d been standing outside the Hades cabin, listening to her rants via IM.

Percy had snorted. “Like size matters. Ever heard of a grenade?”

Nico then spends the next few days being worshipped by Jason and lectured by Hazel and Reyna. Hazel orders him to come to Camp Jupiter soon or else she’ll kidnap him from his cabin herself. He doesn’t seem to mind, though. Percy thinks it’s helped him realize people _do_ care about him, even though he should’ve realized that ages ago. 

Percy had taken pity on him and momentarily stopped Operation Blue Bananas for a while. But now Nico’s back to normal and is going to leave for Camp Jupiter soon, which means that it’s time for Phase 6. 

Percy can barely wait.

~*~

The day before Nico’s due to leave for Camp Jupiter is Capture the Flag day which is awesome because now he can capture the flag and get Jason and Nico together all at the same time. It even starts off great – Annabeth comes into his cabin to wake him up and then they end up making out on the bed, which leads to a few activities that would give Chiron an aneurysm if he knew. But then Percy gets hungry so the two of them need to go get some food into him.

Jason spends all morning flirting with Nico so it’s only right before the game that Percy gets a chance to talk to him privately.

“If you’re going to try and convince me to go easy on you,” Jason tells him as soon as he pulls him aside, “don’t hold your breath.”

Percy rolls his eyes. The Poseidon and Zeus cabins are on opposite teams and both he and Jason have been trash talking each other for days. Jason keeps talking about some ‘secret weapon’ that Leo’s got in store for them but Percy doesn’t know why Jason thinks he can win – Percy’s got both Annabeth and Clarisse on his team. They’re going to _cream_ Jason.

And anyway, Jason’s going to be making out with Nico by the end of the day. If Jason wins the game too, he’ll probably literally burst from happiness and then there’ll be little Jason pieces floating around everywhere. So Percy should obviously let him lose. You know, for his own safety.

“We’re going to start Phase 6 today,” Percy says, putting on his helmet.

Jason’s smug smirk slips off. “ _Today_? As in, right now?”

“No time like the present, right?”

Jason’s eyes narrow. “Are you trying to do this just to distract me from the game?”

“What? No! Look, this is the best time to do this, okay? He’s going to Camp Jupiter tomorrow, isn’t he?”

Jason frowns. “Well, yeah.”

“And we don’t know how long he’ll be there. Hazel’s probably going to chain him to a chair or something.”

“Percy, if you really _are_ doing this now just to distract me from the game…”

“So you’re saying winning Capture the Flag is more important to you than Nico?”

Jason looks mortified. “Of course not!”

“Then stop whining,” Percy smiles at him brightly as he fixes the straps on his arms. “Now let me tell you what this phase is.”

“I think I know,” Jason interrupts. His face looks pink under his helmet. “You said it’s the last phase, didn’t you? And knowing you, it’s probably…”

He trails off. Percy raises his eyebrows. “It’s probably…?”

Jason nervously thumps his shield against the ground. His face is really red when he clears his throat and says, “It’s a kiss, isn’t it?”

He’s got it. Right on the nose. (Or on the lips, if you want to get technical about it.) Percy can’t help it – he giggles.

Jason groans when he realizes he’s right. “You’re such a girl,” he complains, covering what Percy can see of his face with his hands.

“Thank you,” Percy beams.

“Seriously though? The kiss already?”

Percy shrugs. “I’ve been stalling for way too long. Let’s get you two crazy kids together.”

Jason’s still blushing but Percy gets a smile out of him. “Are we going to do this after the game or what?”

“Actually,” Percy says, “I think the game’s the perfect time for you to do it. You can just take Nico somewhere secluded and make out with him while everyone else is busy playing.”

“Oh wow what a completely fool-proof plan,” Jason deadpans. “Except for the fact that Nico doesn’t even play Capture the Flag. He’ll probably be in his cabin while we play.”

“Let me handle that,” Percy reassures him. “I’ll convince him. But once you have him alone, you _need_ to tell him how you feel. You can do that, right?”

Jason nods. He seems a lot more confident about Nico now and doesn’t deny the fact that there might be a possibility that Nico likes him back. Percy likes to think he’s had something to do with that.

“But how are you going to convince him to play?” Jason asks.

“I told you, leave that to me,” Percy says. “But when he tries to ask you about the person you like, just tell him okay? Now go join your team and don’t try to talk to me anymore – your teammates look really suspicious.”

“Yes, Mom.”

Once Jason’s gone and Percy’s got all his armor on, he scans the area for Nico. The whole camp’s gathered at the outskirts of the forest in two large groups. Percy’s team – the blue team – is talking and goofing off right now, all of them waiting for Annabeth to arrive so she can tell them the game plan.

Percy’s still searching for Nico when Annabeth walks up to him, decked out in armor and looking kind of unfairly hot. “Ready to kick butt, Seaweed Brain?” she says. She puts on her helmet and then shakes her ponytail out. It shines like golden silk as it catches the light and sways around. Her hair smelled really good this morning when they were lying in bed doing – oh look she has a little cut at the corner of her mouth. Wonder how she got that. Maybe if he kisses it better…

He doesn’t realize he’s been leaning in until her hand crashes into his face. “Save it for later,” she says sternly, “Right now we need to concentrate on the game.” She squares her shoulders as she glances at the other team. “We’re against Jason, Piper and Leo – they’re all together. Not to mention, they have the Hermes cabin on their side. Well, at least we have the Apollo kids. And if my plan works…”

“Uh, speaking of plans working,” Percy cuts in, “Do you know where Nico is?”

“What do you need him for?” she says, and then her eyes widen. “Oh my gods Percy you are not starting Phase 6 right now!”

Why does everyone have a problem with Phase 6? “But it’s the perfect time!”

“We have a game and you can’t afford to be distracted! Uggh, why did I ever let you do this stupid bananas thing?” she slaps at his chest, which Percy thinks is really pointless since he’s wearing armor.

“I won’t even be doing anything,” he explains. “I’m just going to talk to Nico for like five minutes right now and then the rest of it is up to Jason. I’m going to be playing the game – really. Now tell me if you saw him anywhere.”

Annabeth glares at him for a while. It’s amazing how she can look all grumpy and cute but intimidating and deadly at the same time. It always feels like a rush when he can’t decide whether he wants to kiss her or run away from her in fear. That’s why he usually does both.

He gives her the puppy dog eyes that Piper says always work. Piper must know what she’s talking about because Annabeth melts – which basically means that she rolls her eyes and looks a tad bit less grumpy.

“Last I saw him, he was sitting on top of the climbing wall,” she says, “He had a pair of high-power military binoculars with him that he’s going to watch the game with.”

“Well, he can’t just sit there. How’s he going to kiss Jason if they’re so far away from each other?”

“Yes, Percy, I know how kisses work,” she says drily. “Anyway, the game’s about to start and you won’t get to the climbing wall and back in time. You should just stay here.”

Percy tsks dramatically. “Oh, Annabeth, you have no faith in me.”

“None at all.”

Percy looks up, scanning the sky for his Pegasus. When his eyes land on Blackjack, he lets out a high-pitched whistle and the flying horse comes swooping down.

“See?” Percy beams at Annabeth. “I’ll be there and back in no time.”

Annabeth watches Blackjack with a resigned look on her face. “If you aren’t, we’re starting without you. And if you don’t have my back by the time the action starts, I won’t kiss you for a week.”

Percy gasps. “Annabeth! You take that back right now.”

“You want to make it two weeks?”

How can someone be so evil and wonderful all at once? “Have you no shame?” he whispers.

She grins and even through her helmet he can see how her eyes light up and her cheeks rise with her smile. “Nope,” she says brightly, “Now go get Nico and come back quick, okay?”

And then she walks off without even giving him a kiss. Sure, their helmets would’ve gotten in the way but she could’ve at least _tried_. You’d think after he _fell into hell_ for her, she’d be more willing to take one for the team and kiss him a bit more often. What a meanie.

 _“Uh, boss?”_ Blackjack’s voice echoes in his head. _“Am I supposed to take you to the death kid? ‘Cause I’m not exactly a fan of his.”_

“His name is Nico, Blackjack,” Percy says, getting on top of the Pegasus. “And don’t be rude. He’s a cool guy.”

_“He smells bad.”_

“Yeah, well, so do you but you don’t see me complaining, do you?”

Blackjack neighs. _“You wanna walk all the way over to death boy yourself, boss?”_

“Alright, fine,” Percy mutters. “Touchy.” Blackjack lets out a _that’s right I win_ kind of snort and takes to the air. 

It doesn’t take too long to get to the climbing wall with Blackjack’s help. It’s not functional right now so it’s not moving or shaking or tossing debris or lava down. A small dark figure sits on top of it with his legs dangling over the edge, huge binoculars in his hand as he trains them at the forest. When Blackjack gets close enough to land, Nico lowers his binoculars and turns to them.

“Percy,” he says, surprised.

“Nico,” Percy says, “Cool binoculars. Military grade, huh? Do they have night vision? Or heat vision?”

Nico glances down at them. “Uh, yeah, they have both. What are you doing here? Aren’t you playing?”

“I am,” Percy says, walking over to him. Blackjack beats his wings and flies off – still close enough for Percy to be able to call him if he needs to. “I just came here to ask you for a favor.”

“A favor?” Nico says as Percy sits down next to him. “What could you need from me?”

“I’ll tell you if you agree to do it.”

Nico looks at him suspiciously. “Alright. If it’s in my power.”

“It is,” Percy says, “See, the thing is – I think Jason’s a bit, ah, how do I say this? Stressed out?”

Nico frowns. “Stressed out? About what?”

“Well,” Percy says slowly, relishing the way Nico impatiently fidgets, “He told you that he’s recently realized he liked boys too, hasn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“It’s about that,” Percy says, making his voice sound extra sad. “I think he’s getting a bit gloomy these days because… well…” he sighs and looks away, putting a solemn look on his face. Sure, he’s getting late for the game, but he’s not late enough to give up on torturing Nico for a little while.

Beside him, Nico squirms. “Well?” he says anxiously.

Percy stares off at Blackjack for a few seconds. “He’s…” he sighs and trails off again, putting on an _I don’t know if I should tell you_ face. 

Nico looks like he’s five seconds away from shoving him off and seeing as how the last time he fell off a cliff wasn’t exactly an enjoyable experience, Percy decides it might be best to just tell him. 

“He has a crush,” he says.

Nico stares at him. “A crush?”

“On a guy. And he thinks the guy doesn’t like him back so he’s having this whole crisis thingy and now he’s feeling all sad about liking him – as if he could’ve helped it.”

Nico’s eyes are as wide as saucers. He swallows and says, “He likes a guy? Who is it?”

Percy shrugs. “Couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to. I don’t know myself. He’s pretty secretive.”

Nico looks down at his hands. “He doesn’t seem to be sad to me. He seems normal.”

“Yeah but trust me – it’s messing him up big time. So I thought that since you know what it’s like and all, you could talk to him?”

Nico peers at him warily. “About what?”

“I don’t know,” Percy says, “Try to find out who it is he likes? And then try to push him towards _telling that person his feelings_? Because he’ll have to _tell him_ sooner or later, right? Can’t keep it _bottled up for too long_. He should _take a chance_ , really. The guy _probably likes you_ – uh, him, I mean – back.”

He thinks he’s being pretty clever with all the subliminal messaging and stuff but Nico just fervently shakes his head. “I’m not going to force him into telling me who he likes,” he says with surprising insistence, “That’s never right.”

“I’m not asking you to force him,” Percy clarifies, “I’m just asking you to talk to him about it. Maybe he’ll open up to you.”

Nico looks strangely offended by this. “Why, are the two of us a hive mind?” he says. “We’re both gay so we should stick together and talk about boys telepathically?”

Percy rolls his eyes. Why is this kid so sarcastic? “That’s not what I meant, Nico. I meant that you’re friends with him so he should be more willing to tell you what’s up, right?”

“You’re his friend too.”

“Not like you are. Look, I need to get to the game quick or Annabeth will kill me. So will you do it or not?”

Nico frowns. “Why is Annabeth always about to kill you?”

“ _Nico_ ,” Percy says, exasperated. “Come on, man.”

A shadow passes over Nico’s face and he looks at a point behind Percy’s shoulder with a morose look in his eyes. “I don’t know if I should,” he says quietly.

“Aw, come on. What’s the worst thing that could happen? You’re only helping Jason, after all.”

Nico’s eyes meet Percy’s and there’s something powerful in them that he can’t put his finger on. All of a sudden he looks very upset and frustrated. Percy wonders what he did wrong.

Then his face clears and he nods. “I suppose I can try,” he says.

“Great!” Percy replies brightly – maybe a little too brightly but hey, he’s trying to dispel the awkward air around them. “Blackjack can carry…”

“No,” Nico says immediately as he gets up, pocketing the giant binoculars (how huge are the pockets in that aviator jacket anyway?) “Animals don’t work well with me – mythological creatures are even worse. I’ll shadow travel down there.”

“Are you sure? Blackjack won’t mind.” The Pegasus in question lets out an annoyed whine. “Much.”

“It’ll be faster this way. I’ll see you there.”

Percy hesitates, wondering if Nico’s going to ditch him and keep sitting here. Then he nods and flies down to the edge of the forest just in time for the game.

~*~

Annabeth’s standing on top of a huge rock with the whole team surrounding her, announcing the game plan. Percy gets off of Blackjack and joins them and when Annabeth catches his eye, she says, “Percy, you – along with half of the Hecate cabin – are going to patrol the left side of our territory to make sure no one gets past the border and near our flag.” Percy nods. “Lou Ellen, you’re going to take the right side with the rest of the cabin. If someone from the other team _does_ pass the border…”

“We destroy them!” one of the Ares kids shouts. The whole Ares cabin roars in approval while the rest of the team shakes their heads and sighs at them.

“No,” Annabeth says, effectively shutting them up, “The Hecate cabin can engage in combat but the first priority is to warn the rest of the team that they have to get ready to fight using a signal. Lou Ellen?”

The green-haired daughter of Hecate raises her hand and spreads her fingers. Bright red sparks dance on top of her fingertips.

“Is that fire?” Percy says.

“Do I look like Leo Valdez?” Lou Ellen raises her eyebrows, “It’s just magic – sort of like an illusion, actually.”

“All the children of Hecate can do that, but during the game, it needs to be at a much larger scale,” Annabeth explains. “Shoot the sparks into the sky where the rest of your teammates will be able to see. And _all_ of you need to do it, not just one. We’ll be able to see it clearly.”

“And then we come join the fight?” someone asks.

“No. Stay at the border. We’ll send the Ares cabin to back you up – you have to keep people out. We’ll deal with whoever gets inside.” She takes a deep breath. “Now, the red team has both Jason and the Hepheastus cabin, so they might attack aerially when they can’t get in. For that, the Apollo cabin…”

Percy tries to focus on Annabeth’s instructions but right at that moment, he sees Nico, who’s just appeared in the shadows under a tree a few feet away. Nico just nods at him and walks off in the direction of Jason’s team. 

Not listening to the game plan is the number one rookie mistake you can make but Percy’s too busy grinning and internally dying from excitement to listen to anything Annabeth’s saying. He knows he’ll most probably pay for it later but – meh.

You know what, Jason and Nico better tell everyone that Percy was the one who hooked them up in the first place. It’s not that he wants to be known as a matchmaker but he _would_ like some credit. And if he’s not at least one of their best men in their wedding, he is going to be majorly pissed off. He is so not going to lose that to Leo or Frank. 

Wouldn’t it be awesome if he was _both_ their best men? And then they had to fight over him? Yeah, a gladiator-ish fight with a whole arena and everything. Percy’ll finally be the one who does the whole thumbs-up thumbs-down thing. He always wanted to know what that would feel like.

And they should definitely name their first kid after him. They owe him that much at least. He’ll be fine with a middle name even. Or if he could be the kid’s godfather! Yeah, that sounds better. That way when Nico and Jason die, Percy’s going to take care of the kid. He could be a whole dad-figure and the kid would love him to death and he’ll tell him all the awesome stories about his dead parents and how he was the reason they even got together…

Wait now he _wants_ his friends to die. Dammit, why does it always come to this?

Wait, why is everything so quiet all of a sudden?

He looks around to see everyone staring at him expectantly. Realizing that he’d just been frowning off into the distance, he turns to Annabeth, who is standing with her hands on her hips. “Huh?” he says dumbly.

“I said,” she glares at him, “Take your half of the Hecate cabin to the left side of the border and wait for the game to start.”

“Oh right,” Percy says, “Yeah, I heard that. Okay. Let’s do this.”

She rolls her eyes and she’s not the only one. Percy thinks it’s funny (and kind of embarrassing) how people in Camp Jupiter respect Jason and still think of him as their leader even when he’s not anymore – and at the same time, everyone here in Camp Half-Blood knows Percy’s just one of them and only take orders from him when there’s a Great Prophecy underway. Not that he minds. If he was in charge of Camp Half-Blood, he would blow it up in record time.

Percy and five children of Hecate are positioned in a semi-circle – widely spaced enough to take up the area but close enough to still see each other. They can all spot their flag in the distance with Athena’s owl emblazoned on it, being protected by a daughter of Apollo and a hefty Ares guy with a spear. Percy knows that the far side of their territory is being protected too but he can’t see the other guards. 

Chiron announces that the game has begun and it proceeds the same way every other game has. It’s quiet at first but no one’s stupid enough to drop their guard. They scan their surroundings, a few of them talking, waiting for the ball to drop. The red team’s probably doing the same thing. 

Percy peers into the forest around him, wondering if Jason and Nico are together right now and if they’re alone or not. The annoying thing about being the wingman is that he’s out of the loop – but at the same time, he isn’t. He’s the one who’s doing everything but then he doesn’t get to see any of it actually _happen_. And yeah it sounds perverted of him to say that he wants to watch two of his friends kiss but it’s not that much to ask for. And anyway it’s not like he’s never seen it before (anyone who thinks Frank and Hazel are innocent angels should see them attack each other’s mouths).

Percy’s got his eyes trained on the farthest tree he can clearly see (everything behind that is kind of blurry which probably means he should ask his mom to take him to the eye doctor or something) when he sees some movement from behind it. He calls to the one of the guys next to him and asks him if he can see whoever’s behind it from his angle.

He squints at the tree for a while and then just shakes his head at Percy. “It’s nothing to worry about,” he says. “It’s the di Angelo kid – he doesn’t play, right?”

Percy frowns. What’s Nico doing hanging around here? He’d said he would talk to Jason. Why is the kid so determined to ruin Percy’s gloriously perfect plan?

Percy glances back at the flag. It looks fine to him. Its two guards are obviously good for the job – otherwise Annabeth wouldn’t have put them there. The whole clearing is filled with his teammates anyway, and border patrol has at least ten more children of Hecate. It’s not like they really need him or anything. He’s just another guy – what difference does he make?

“Hey, listen,” he calls to the son of Hecate, “I’m going to go see what he wants, okay?”

The guy frowns. “What who wants?”

“Nico. I think he came here for me so I should see what he needs.”

“You’re not supposed to leave your post,” the boy warns, “Annabeth’s not going to like it.”

“I’m only going to be gone for a second, man,” Percy says exasperatedly, “Just keep an eye on my area.”

“Wait, you shouldn’t…”

“Two minutes,” Percy says and then darts off into the forest.

He expects to hear the guy shout for the others and for all of them to drag him back with their freaky Hecate powers like Hazel did with Piper that one time to keep her from bungee jumping on a full (of ice cream) stomach. But there’s silence behind him so he runs quickly to Nico.

Nico’s standing behind the tree, craning his neck to look at something when Percy claps his hand on his shoulder. Nico jumps and turns around. 

“Percy?” he says, “What are you doing here? Go back to your post!”

“Actually, the more appropriate question is what are _you_ doing?” Percy says, “I thought you said you were going to talk to Jason. Are you chickening out?”

“I _am_ going to talk to him, okay?” Nico says. “Look – see?”

He pulls aside some foliage and points. Percy can see Jason standing by a creek with two of his teammates. He’s saying something to them and even though Percy can’t hear what he’s saying, but he can tell from Jason’s face and his posture that he’s being all authoritative and command-y. 

“You said to talk to him alone,” Nico says to Percy, “And you’re right, it’ll be easier to ask him when there’s no one else around for him to worry about. I’m waiting for the other two to leave. I think he’s giving orders for them to go take care of something. That’s what it looks like at least.” He turns to Percy. “You can go back now, you know. I _will_ talk to him.”

“I just want to make sure you do,” Percy says. “So I’ll stay here for a while.”

Nico gives him an annoyed glance. “Why do you think I won’t talk to him?”

“I’m just curious about what he’s going to say. I want to make sure he – I mean, I want to know what he says.”

“Oh,” Nico says. They watch Jason for a while and then Nico says, “I’ll tell you whose name he told me later on if you like. I’ll have to ask him first, of course. But if he says I can tell you, then…”

“It’s fine, Nico.”

“It’s better than eavesdropping. What if he doesn’t want you to know?”

Percy waves him off. “Trust me. He does.” Nico doesn’t reply – he just turns and stares at Percy. Percy keeps his eyes trained on Jason but he can practically _feel_ the understanding dawning on Nico. “Why is he taking so long in telling those kids what to do? How hard can it be anyway?”

“You know, don’t you,” Nico says. It’s not a question and he looks at Percy with complete certainty in his eyes.

“Know what?’

“Who he likes,” he narrows his eyes and his tone is almost accusing, “You know who it is and you’re still sending me to find out?”

“No!” Percy lies, trying his hardest to sound convincing. “Okay, look, I may or may not have a suspicion as to who it is – but I don’t know for sure. And besides, I’m not sending you to get information out of him. I’m sending you to make him feel better about crushing on someone. There’s a big difference.”

Nico still looks suspicious. “Tell me,” he says.

“What?”

“Tell me who you think it is.”

“I can’t do that!”

“Why not?”

“Bro code, Nico,” Percy says and then immediately winces. Bro code? Seriously?

Nico frowns too. “What’s that and why does it sound so stupid?”

Percy shakes his head. “Look, never mind, just – hey, the others are gone!”

Nico’s head snaps up to peer through the bushes again. Jason’s alone now, the other campers already disappearing into the trees. This is the perfect time for the two boys to talk but for some reason, Nico doesn’t move. “They are,” he confirms.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Percy says. “Go on and talk to him!”

Nico just keeps sitting there. Jason idles by the tree, sword at his side, looking warily at his surroundings.

“Go on,” Percy says, giving Nico a little push, “You can do it.”

Nico doesn’t respond.

“I’ll give you a treat if you go,” Percy wheedles him.

Nico rolls his eyes. “I’m not a dog, Percy,” he says. “I’m going.”

He keeps sitting. “I can see that,” Percy replies.

Nico gives him another look and that’s when Percy realizes that the other boy is blushing. He can’t imagine why. Does just watching Jason _exist_ turn Nico on? How? And why? Does Nico have a fetish? Would he have the same reaction if Jason starting picking his nose? He’d _definitely_ have a fetish then.

Nico’s staring at him. “Whatever you’re thinking,” Nico says, “it’s stupid and you need to stop now.”

Percy glares at him. “I liked it better when you used to be nice to me.”

As soon as the words are out of his mouth, he knows he shouldn’t have said them. Nico’s eyes dull down and he looks away. The air becomes thick with awkwardness. They both know why Nico used to be so nice to him even when he was crappy towards him.

“Look,” Percy breaks the silence, “Just go talk to him. I get that you guys are buddies and stuff but you’ve never talked about this stuff before, have you? And that’s weird because crushing on people is sort of what bothers the two of you most. So just go, okay?”

Nico hesitantly nods. “Alright,” he says, “Maybe I can…”

He stops mid-sentence, looking up at the sky in surprise. Percy follows his gaze to see red sparks dancing above the tree tops. He curses and tries to look at the border but he can’t see it properly – as far as he can tell, there’s no one standing at his post which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because the enemy hasn’t found that one hole in their border yet – bad because no one from the blue team is patrolling that hole, which means it’s only a matter of time before the red team sneaks in.

Seeing as how the Hecate kids already gave the signal though, it’s obvious someone from the red team has found their way in.

Percy whips his head back to look at Jason. He’s squinting curiously at the red sparks but seems unsure. If there’s a fight going on inside the blue team’s territory, it’ll probably be easy to win it – unless Jason steps in. Then the game could tip in anyone’s favor.

Percy has to distract Jason – fast.

“Nico, go now,” Percy says quickly.

“What?”

“Go talk to Jason, okay? And please – _please_ – keep him away from our territory, will you?”

Nico’s jaw actually falls open. “You’re asking me to be your _accomplice_?”

“Only for a little while,” Percy pleads, watching as another barrage of red sparks stains the sky. If the blue team loses just because he left his post…“The fight’s going to blow up any second now and then Jason’s most probably going to join it whether or not you’re talking to him. But until then, _please_ distract him?”

Nico just shakes his head at him in disappointment. “That’s very bad sportmanship, Percy.”

Percy’s eyes practically bug out of his head. His thought process is something like: _Bad sportsmanship? BAD SPORTSMANSHIP? Why you little… And to think I’ve been_ slaving _over you and Jason this whole time – Ungrateful little noodle. YOU’D BETTER NAME YOUR KID AFTER ME OR I SWEAR ON POSEIDON’S PEARLY WHITES I AM GOING TO –_

“Alright, fine,” Nico says, raising his hands in surrender. “Can you stop looking like you’re going to murder me?”

Percy just moves a branch out of Nico’s way and points in Jason’s direction. Nico rolls his eyes in that _yeah okay whatever_ kind of way and then trudges over to Jason.

Percy waits until Jason’s seen Nico (and his face has lighted up with that pathetically-in-love glow that it always does) and then he makes a run for it.

~*~

And yeah, Annabeth’s going to murder him.

There are about twenty campers from the red team in their territory – all bunched together and fighting. At first Percy thinks they might’ve snuck in from where he was meant to be patrolling but then he sees that more of the red team campers are just streaming into the clearing from one side. It looks almost as if the children of Hecate in that region are just standing there, doing nothing…

Then he sees her. Of course. _Piper._

She’s just standing there among his teammates, talking to them in her soothing convincing voice, probably telling them not to attack, to let them all come in. Her own teammates file in behind her, snickering.

The thing that’s really suspicious and worrisome is that every camper from the red team is wearing what look to Percy like goggles and nose plugs. Even Piper. He wonders what that’s about.

The rest of the blue team is too caught up in protecting what’s left of their border and in fighting the intruders who are closing in on the flag much too fast. Percy uncaps his sword and fights his way to the boulder which has the flag on top of it – now guarded by Clarisse and Annabeth.

Annabeth’s fighting the campers and simultaneously yelling out orders. Her expression turns into murderous rage when she sees Percy and it’s kind of scary how she looked less threatening when she was fighting people who were actual _enemies_ in this game.

Percy parries someone’s strike, kicks them in the gut to get rid of them and then turns to his girlfriend. “I…”

“Save it,” she says shortly as she almost beheads someone with her drakon bone sword, “We have bigger things to worry about.”

“Miss Cherokee Princess is ruining everything,” Clarisse growls. She jabs her spear into someone’s chest so hard that Percy’s sure she must’ve dented at least one rib.

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Annabeth says, “At least we know where Piper is and what she’s doing. Jason on the other hand – he could just swoop in here and take the flag. Are they hiding him until the last minute?”

“Don’t worry about Jason,” Percy replies. “I took care of that.”

Annabeth looks at him curiously, all fierce grey eyes and blood dripping from her cheek, but doesn’t question him. “Let’s get rid of Piper then,” she says. “Clarisse, take at least three more of your cabin mates and shut Piper up somehow.” She throws an almost angry glance Piper’s way. “Make sure you take girls – they’ll be less likely to be effected by Piper’s charmspeak if they aren’t attracted to her.”

“What?” Clarisse cries, “But Madison’s a lesbian!”

“ _THEN TAKE SOMEBODY ELSE GODDAMMIT!”_ Annabeth roars. “ _IS_ EVERYONE _IN THIS CAMP GAY?!”_

“Annabeth,” Percy says soothingly as Clarisse and her sisters run off, “Annabeth, let’s try to solve this problem, okay?”

“I _do_ have a solution,” Annabeth says as she and Percy clamber on top of the boulder to get away from the sudden influx of campers. “As long as Jason’s out and there’s no aerial attack…”

The words are barely out of his mouth before the sky is filled with the loudest buzzing he’s ever heard. It rattles his teeth together and he can almost feel his insides vibrating. Practically everyone stops to look overhead as Leo flies down on… what is that thing anyway?

Percy’s first thought is Festus. But the thing isn’t as big as Festus and seems a lot more bulky. Percy can only see its bottom and it looks like he’s looking up at a giant beetle with a bright red belly. Leo’s grinning face pokes out from the side and he swoops it sideways – probably to give everyone a front row view of his new contraption. That’s when Percy sees that it _is_ a giant mechanical flying beetle – it has two sets of wings, a huge back that might be able to fit ten cars, and two hanging antennae which Leo probably just added to finish the look.

Leo’s ‘secret weapon’. Great.

He’s sitting right behind the bug’s ‘head’ as he beams down at them, his goggles making his eyes look extra huge. “Don’t be afraid, my people!” he shouts through a megaphone. “Your leader is here!”

“Leo!” Annabeth shouts. “What the _hell_ is that?”

“A little project I abandoned a couple of months ago,” he replies. Percy can’t see his mouth because of the megaphone but there is no doubt the guy’s smirking. “I took it up only a few days ago and viola! It’s finished.”

Percy’s teammates are starting to look really worried. Clarisse has detained Piper for now – she’s sitting tied up on the woodland floor, a charm on her lips to keep her from talking, her knife and sword in Clarisse’s custody – but even Clarisse looks uncertain.

“It’s just a metal bug!” Percy shouts, trying to sound confident. “What’re you going to do, crawl all over us? Nice try, Leo!”

He thinks he’s got a good point but Leo just snorts unattractively into his megaphone. “Jokes on you, Jackson!” he bellows and then the bug starts whirring ominously.

Yet _another_ set of wings descend from its back. It’s too late that Percy realizes it’s not wings – it’s the whole back of the beetle that’s been displaced. And there are actual campers popping out from inside the beetle, peering over the edge and grinning smugly at the blue team below.

They’re aiming things at Percy’s teammates and the first thing Percy thinks is, “Ha! We have Apollo cabin’s archers here – who do you think you’re kidding?”

Then he realizes they’re not arrows.

“Hit the deck!” some wonderful son of Demeter shouts as the stink bomb impacts. Poor beautiful angel. He probably got a mouthful of that bomb.

The whole Hermes cabin is on Leo’s side as well and Percy really should’ve seen this coming – Leo Valdez and the Stolls teaming up is never a good idea. The stink bombs smell extra bad (they used to be in the range of ‘stinky gym socks’ before – now it’s more like ‘moldy cheese mixed with rotten eggs topped with skunk spray’) and they’re actually stinging Percy’s eyes. His vision is blurry and he can feel tears rushing down his cheeks.

The red team probably won’t have any trouble though. Freaking goggles and nose plugs. 

Percy wipes the tears out of his eyes in time to see a Hephaestus camper come barreling at him with a spear. Percy manages to disarm the guy and hits the butt (hehe) of his sword into the guy’s nose. He shoves the guy away but not before yanking off his goggles.

He turns to Annabeth but she’s already stolen her own pair from someone else so he puts on the ones he’s holding.

“Now what?” Percy calls to her over the commotion.

“What do you mean, now what? Do what we planned!”

And yeah, not listening to the game plan is a _huge_ mistake. He winces and Annabeth looks like she’s trying to keep herself from stabbing him through with the flag itself. 

“Water cover, Percy,” she says, channeling her anger out on the enemy campers around her. “I didn’t know Leo was going to do this but our plan will still work.”

“Water cover? How would that stop that bug thing? It’ll just come right through the water at us!”

“The chemicals the Stolls used to make these stink bombs with are incredibly soluble, especially when they’re in gaseous form.”

“English please?”

“The water’s going to dissolve the stink, okay?” she screams at him. “Not to mention, if you create a whirlpool, it’ll cause air currents strong enough to make it difficult for Leo to maneuver the bug. Just make sure not to crash him but remember to keep the cover on top of…”

“Annabeth!” Percy grabs her shoulders. “ _One_ command, okay?”

She blows a strand of hair out of her face. “Make a whirlpool and make it _big_ ,” she says.

Percy can handle that.

The nearest water source is the creek where Jason and Nico are, so once he calls water from there, Jason’s going to know something’s up and will probably come to check it out. Percy doesn’t understand why he hasn’t come already – they’re making one hell of a racket – but hopefully he and Nico have already left for Las Vegas to get married so he won’t bother Percy anymore.

Percy closes his eyes and concentrates, that familiar tug pulling deep inside him. In minutes, there’s a whirlpool centered on the boulder the flag’s on. Annabeth was right about the water soaking up the stink. As disgusting as it sounds, the water’s stained brownish-green now. It makes it a bit harder to control but at least the air around them has cleared. The stink has died down enough to become bearable, replaced by the fresh smell of river water. The air currents make Leo’s beetle thing swerve around unsteadily for a while until Leo’s forced to raise it higher, screaming, “Screw you, Percy Jackson!” into the sky. 

Percy loves it.

The best part is that no one dares step close to the flag. The whirlpool’s too strong.

It’s not all good, though. Someone from the red team unleashed Piper Freaking McLean into the crowd and there are some of Percy’s teammates who are literally sitting around counting flower petals because Piper told them to. He’s grateful for the rush of water in his ears preventing him from hearing her voice – her charmspeak affects him too easily. 

Way up in the sky, the underside of the beetle opens up and a huge grabber arm descends out of it. It extends downwards, moving towards the flag in the middle of Percy’s whirlpool. Before it can get any closer, though, Clarisse lobs a javelin at it. It catches the robotic arm in the elbow hard enough to make it dangle to and fro dangerously.

Leo shouts out a few colorful curses (Percy has no doubt he learned most, if not all, of them from Hazel) and screams, “Where the ever-loving _Hades_ is Jason?!”

Percy exchanges a grin with Annabeth. Jason’s crush on Nico is a gift from Elysium.

“Let’s finish this,” Annabeth says. “Send out a single jet of water into the sky, Percy.”

“What for?”

“If you’d been listening to me before, you’d know. It’s a signal.”

He doesn’t even ask. Almost immediately after he does it, a barrage of sparks rise towards the sky from all around him, surrounding a very confused Leo and his machine. They look exactly like the sparks from before, except these sparks aren’t red – they’re green.

Annabeth’s grinning widely. The light from the sparks shines in her eyes, making them look grey-green for a few seconds, and Percy never realized what a pretty color that was before. The whirlpool falters a bit, wobbling unsteadily, and Percy has to look away so he doesn’t drown everyone around him.

“Send another one,” she says to him. “Make this one go higher.”

Percy complies and not half a second after he’s done it, green sparks rise from another part of the forest – not too far away, only about twenty or so feet from their clearing. But why are his own teammates in another part of the forest? He thought they were all…

Then realization dawns on him.

“No!” Leo whines in his megaphone. Annabeth laughs, and Percy lets his whirlpool die down a bit to see if it’s really happening.

Will Solace jogs into the clearing, being followed by a team of Apollo, Ares and Hecate children. Two of the girls carry the red team’s flag high in the sky – a deep brown banner with the caduceus emblazoned on it. It ripples for a second before turning clear grey with a picture of an owl and an olive branch woven through its silk.

Percy’s team explodes into applause. Percy’s careful to guide all the water back where it came from before celebrating himself. His whole team flocks together, raising Annabeth high onto their shoulders. Will Solace hugs him so hard, Percy’s sure he cracks a few ribs and even Clarisse gives him a one-armed hug, thumping him on the back so hard he almost pukes up his breakfast. 

When he finally wrestles out of the crowd of stinky campers celebrating together, he sees Annabeth hugging Lou Ellen. He waits until she’s done and then grins at her. “I thought we were goners for sure,” he confesses.

She smirks at him. “Athena always has a plan, Seaweed Brain,” she says. “I knew they were going to converge here, thinking we were stupid to all gather in one place together with our flag right in the centre. We just had to make enough commotion and mayhem to attract most of them so Will and the others could go get their flag.” She glances up at the sky. “Leo’s machine-thing was unexpected but I knew they were going to try something from above to trap us, so I’d already planned for you to take care of that.” She shrugs. “It was easy, really.”

Percy feels so immensely proud of her. “You are the smartest person I have ever met,” he tells her before deciding he _is_ going to kiss that little cut on the corner of her mouth.

After a kiss which is maybe a bit too long and tongue-y to be done in public, they break apart to see a very sullen Piper come up to talk to them.

“I can’t believe it,” she says moodily, snapping off her goggles. “Leo promised me we’d win.”

“I feel sorry for him,” Annabeth says, sounding not-very-sorry-at-all, “He must’ve worked so hard on that…” she turns around to look at the bug Leo is parking in the trees, “…thing.”

Piper grudgingly smiles. “He had almost completed it a few months ago. He just tweaked it up a bit so we could use it today. Said that he just magically realized how to finish it one day. Wait, hold on – Leo! Get your butt here, will you?!”

Leo gives her a glare and then dejectedly gets out of his beetle, slides down a rope ladder coming out of its belly, and then trudges over to them.

“I got a bone to pick with Jason,” he mutters, “We could’ve won if he was here.”

“Yeah, it’s weird,” Piper frowns, “I didn’t see him the whole time. I mean, he was supposed to be back-up and all – we were planning on keeping him in the sky and away from the stink, but I didn’t see him flying by even _once_.”

“Probably just got bored and sat out,” Annabeth lies smoothly. “Leo, I thought you were working on Festus. Did you give up on that?”

Leo gives her a look. “No, I did _not_ give up on that. I’m going to finish it and then I’m going to save Calypso.” He shakes his head dismissively. “Nah, I just took a break. A few days ago, I was just roaming around these woods – doing like I do, you know how it is – when I saw a couple of those giant fire ants. Their exoskeleton made me realize I could upgrade this Beetle’s armor a bit.”

“How do you maneuver it?” Annabeth asks.

“Meh, it’s a piece of cake. It’s all connected up to a couple of X-Box game controllers so it’s like you’re playing a video game, except it’s real.”

Annabeth raises an eyebrow. “Are you serious?”

“Hey, I wanted the whole X –Box experience, okay?” Leo says, “It’s so easy to control, even Percy could do it.”

“Gee, thanks,” Percy mutters.

Leo gives him a cheeky grin before turning back to Annabeth. “And then the Stolls saw it in Bunker Nine the other day and told me it could be really useful during the game, especially if we could use it to drop stink bombs on you guys.”

“Yeah, thanks for that,” Percy wipes his eyes, “I’m still crying a little bit.”

“That’s nothing new,” Piper quips, and sidesteps when Percy tries to shove at her. “But seriously, where _is_ Jason?”

All three of them look at him, like he’s supposed to know. Well, he _does_ know but that’s beside the point.

“Phase 6, am I right?” Leo says.

“Phase 6,” Percy confirms, “I don’t think we should look for him. We might catch them making out or something.”

“We can’t right now anyway,” Piper says, pointing at Chiron as he gallops into the clearing. Everyone turns to him as he comes to a stop among the campers.

“Well, that was interesting,” the centaur says, “I don’t believe we’ve ever had a game like that before. And that machine – it’s ingenious, Leo.”

“Apparently not ingenious enough,” Leo mutters.

“Now that the blue team has won,” Chiron says, pausing to let the campers applaud, “it’s time for a celebratory feast!”

The campers all cheer and follow him out of the forest, talking and chattering excitedly. Annabeth, Piper and Leo start to follow but Percy keeps standing. 

“You guys go ahead,” he says, “I’ll take a shortcut to the Zeus cabin – maybe Jason’s there.”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Piper says.

“I should still check, right?”

Annabeth rolls her eyes. “He just wants to make sure his Phase 6 was successful. Go ahead, we’ll see you later.”

Percy waves them off and then heads to the creek, just to make sure they aren’t there. He thinks he sees tracks in the ground where Jason had been standing, like someone pacing over and over, but it probably means nothing. He doubles back and heads to Jason’s cabin.

On the way, he can’t help but grin. He’s really tired, doesn’t smell so hot, and his eyes are still running a bit – but he feels so _good_ , he can’t help it. There’s a bubble of happiness that keeps expanding in his chest and it’s only when he laughs does it stop (and then all the dryads give him weird looks – they’re never as friendly as the naiads are).

This day has gone as good as it could’ve. Maybe even better. They actually won Capture the Flag, even after Leo popped in on his giant flying insect. It had felt so good to control the water around him again even if it got polluted really easy. Now if his Phase 6 was successful (and he is so freaking sure it is) that’ll just make his day.

Truth be told, he’d been a bit doubtful about this whole operation in the beginning. He’d thought of and scrapped and added so many new phases. In the end, it really _was_ like Annabeth had been saying – he’d been making it up as he went along. But it seems to be going really well and hey, if it gets Jason and Nico together, who cares if he hadn’t planned all of this from the beginning? All’s well that ends well, right?

The light in the Zeus cabin is on. _Awesome_.

He approaches the front door quietly and places his ear onto it. He isn’t sure what he’s listening for – dirty kissing noises or declarations of love or what – but there’s complete silence on the other end.

He frowns. Maybe Jason isn’t there after all. He probably just left the light on. He might be in the Hades cabin with Nico.

He turns to leave and then the door opens behind him. 

He expects to see red-faced Jason at the door, hissing at him to leave because Nico’s in there with him. But that doesn’t happen and his smile slides right off his face.

“Jason?” he says. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Jason replies, “Nothing at all.”

But there is something wrong. There is definitely something wrong, because this isn’t his friend Jason, the guy who laughs too loudly and rolls his eyes too much and thumps Percy between the shoulders when they hug like a silent encouragement and says “ah, I see” whenever he understand something (seriously, who even does that?). This is the Jason from _before_ , from when Percy first met him, when he used to sit up straighter and smiled a lot less and thought he wasn’t allowed to break down when things went wrong.

And things are definitely wrong right now.

Percy peers into the empty cabin. “Isn’t Nico…?”

“He came to me, like you said,” Jason says quietly, still holding his doorknob. “In the forest. We talked for a while and then he told me I could tell him if I liked someone – that maybe he could help me.”

What could’ve gone wrong? Did Jason say someone else’s name? “What did you say?”

“I didn’t at first. I just started going through it in my head – why I shouldn’t say it, why I should, what would happen. I was giving myself a headache just thinking about it and he was just sitting there. And then I realized that he’ll be going to Camp Jupiter for probably a long time – and we’re demigods, we could literally die any second – and this might be my only chance. I thought ‘let’s cut this crap’,” he takes a deep breath, “So I went in to kiss him.”

Percy’s eyebrows shoot up. Sure, he’d been bothering Jason to kiss Nico since forever, but he hadn’t actually thought he would _do_ it. That must’ve taken a lot of guts. “Wow,” Percy says, “What happened?”

Jason’s eyes are as cold as ice. “He stopped me,” he says, “He looked really shocked. And then he just… said your name.”

Betrayal flashes bright and fierce on his face even as he says it. Percy’s heart drops down to his toes. “He what?”

“You heard me,” Jason says. He’s trying to sound off-hand but the way he looks away and his Adam’s apple bobs is anything but. “He just blurted it out so I left. He called for me to wait but…” he shrugs.

Percy frowns. His mind moves sluggishly to catch up with the situation.“I don’t… I don’t understand.”

Jason looks up at him, suddenly angry. “What is there not to understand?” he says harshly. “I _told_ you he liked you. I’ve been telling you that from the beginning. You _never_ listened to me and do you see what that’s done?”

The hurt and rage in his eyes is so real that Percy takes a step back, actually worried that he might punch him. The shift from being giddy-happy to upset and slightly scared is so sudden, he has to stop and think about what to say for a second.

“Hey, listen to me,” he says, lifting his hands, “He probably just… He was probably going to say something else, okay? Don’t jump to conclusions…”

“ _Don’t jump to conclusions?_ He _knows_ now, Percy. I tried to kiss him so he obviously knows that I like him – and you know what? He didn’t want me to do it. In fact, the only thing on his mind at that time was _you_! What does that tell you, huh?”

His voice actually cracks at the last word. There’s an uncomfortable lump in Percy’s throat that won’t go down no matter how much he swallows. “Look, Jason,” he says gently, “Don’t get upset about it. We don’t know what he was thinking – we can talk to him about it. _I’ll_ talk to him if you want.”

Jason snorts. “Why, because you’re my _wingman_? _Please_ , Percy – this has been a game to you this whole time. You never cared about me or Nico, you just wanted some distraction.”

The lump in his throat starts choking him when he realizes Jason’s referring to their talk in the Underworld. He’s actually _using_ that against him. Fighting down the sting of it, Percy grits out, “That is _not_ true.”

“Isn’t it?” Jason’s eyes are two blue narrow slits. “You admitted it to me only a few days ago.”

“Don’t!” Percy snaps. His voice is rough. Jason’s upset, he knows, but that doesn’t stop it from hurting. “Don’t say that! That is _not_ – you can’t twist my words, not those ones.”

Jason watches him for a few seconds and Percy tries to keep himself in check. It’s so strange how he was practically jumping from happiness a few minutes ago – now he’s caught between apologizing, comforting or punching his friend.

Then Jason shakes his head at him, turning away. It looks like his fury’s ebbed a bit. Now he just looks sad – his lips turned down and two lines embedded underneath his eyes. “Go away, Percy,” he says. “I know this isn’t your fault but the longer you’re here, the angrier I’ll get at you. Just leave.”

He steps into his cabin and starts to shut the door but no matter how confused Percy might be right now, he isn’t stupid enough to let it go like this. He sticks his foot in it, which seems to be the only thing he can do these days, and keeps the door from closing. When Jason turns around, there’s actually sparks dancing around his head like a halo. “Percy…” he warns.

“I don’t know how this went wrong, but I am going to fix this,” Percy tells him. He looks him straight in the eyes, hoping that’ll show him that he means it.“I promise. You don’t see what I do so you don’t know that he really does like you. But I’ll show you he does.”

“He _doesn’t_ like me,” Jason snarls. “Get over it, Percy.”

He’s trying to sound tough and yeah, he’s kind of succeeding. But his shoulders are slumping and the sparks are sizzling weakly. When he glares at Percy, he can tell it’s taking a lot of effort to keep it that way. All the anger drains out of Percy, replaced by a deep aching need to help his friend. 

“I’ll fix it,” Percy reassures him, “Don’t worry, okay? It’ll be fine.”

“No, I don’t need you to do anything,” Jason says forcefully, “There’s nothing _to_ fix. It doesn’t matter to me anymore – _just don’t do anything_.”

“Jason…”

“Don’t you get it?” Jason’s voice his hoarse. “It wouldn’t be this bad if it weren’t for you! I didn’t think I had _any_ chance – I _knew_ he didn’t like me and I didn’t like it but at least I accepted it. And then you started telling me that he _did_ and if I just told him, I’d see that. How was I supposed to not believe you?”

Percy swallows. “I didn’t…”

“I would be fine right now if it weren’t for you,” Jason says, his face crumpling in a way that feels like a punch to Percy’s chest, “It wouldn’t hurt this much if it weren’t for you. I don’t need you to do anything more, okay? You’ve done _enough_. You made me think I actually had a chance and look where it got me. The fact that he liked you the whole time just makes it even worse.”

He starts to shut the door but Percy quickly reaches out and grasps his shoulder. Spasms of electricity arch through his arm. Jason glares at him, waiting for him to say something, his eyes brimming with hurt. But Percy doesn’t know how to make this better. All he’s done is make things worse. 

“I’m sorry,” he says genuinely.

Jason clenches his jaw and looks down on the floor. “I know you are,” he says quietly, “I know you didn’t mean for it to turn out like this. I’m not mad at you. Not really. I just need you to leave before I convince myself it’s your fault.”

Percy hesitates, not wanting to leave. He wants to turn back the time to a few hours ago, when everything was okay. Maybe if he had done something then… But it’d been going so well. What could he have even done?

“Please,” Jason tells him, “Just leave me alone.”

He steps further inside the cabin and closes the door in Percy’s face.

Percy stands there for a while, not sure if he should leave or burst the door open, demanding that Jason talk to him properly. He doesn’t hear anything from inside the cabin, nothing to let him know what Jason’s doing.

This doesn’t make sense. Nico _does_ like Jason. He doesn’t know why Nico said his name or what he was thinking but if Jason had only stayed with Nico for a while longer, they would’ve figured it out and everything would be fine by now. 

_You never cared about me or Nico, you just wanted some distraction._ He shakes his head and stumbles away from the door towards his own cabin. It’s not true, he _does_ care about both of them. They _did_ take his concentration away from his problems but that wasn’t the only reason he tried to help Jason. He’s sure of it.

He rubs at his eyes. He shouldn’t even have tried. Jason’s right. He’d tried to make it better for him but he’d ended up doing the exact opposite. The betrayal in Jason’s eyes still burns in his mind.

Annabeth’s standing on the porch of the Poseidon cabin, her eyes sad when she steps forward to meet him. 

“I thought you’d be at dinner,” Percy says. His throat closes up dangerously when he talks – he probably shouldn’t do that.

“I came to check on you,” she says, taking his hand.

He stares at it. “You heard, huh?”

She gives him a small smile. “Jason wasn’t exactly being quiet,” she admits. She touches his face. “You okay?”

He nods quickly. “I’m fine,” he mumbles, sniffling. “Jason’s just being an idiot. I need to go to the Hades cabin and get Nico to talk to him. It’ll be fine after that.”

But Annabeth’s already shaking her head. “I checked up on him too, before I came here. He’s not there. Some of his clothes are missing – and his sword, his supply of ambrosia and nectar. I think he’s gone, Percy.”

This can’t be happening. What is Nico even _thinking_? “But I need to – he can’t just…”

“Leave it alone, Percy,” she says gently, “There’s nothing more you can do.”

“But I _did_ this, Annabeth. I ruined everything and I _have_ to fix it. If I can just find Nico…”

“I don’t think you’d be the best person to talk to him right now,” she says. “If what Jason’s saying is true…”

“Nico doesn’t like me,” Percy says firmly. “Why doesn’t anyone get that? He hasn’t felt that way about me for ages. He likes _Jason_ now.”

“Does he?” Annabeth raises her eyebrows. “Or do you just want him to like Jason?”

Percy blinks at her. His eyelids feel raw. “What?”

“Percy, why do you think you’ve been so invested in all of this?” she says, “Why has Nico and Jason getting together mattered so much to you?”

“What kind of a question is that?” Percy says, annoyed. “They like each other – isn’t that enough?”

“According to Jason, Nico likes _you_ ,” Annabeth counters, “So why does it still matter to you so much that the two of _them_ get together?”

“I feel bad for screwing it up, okay?” Percy glares. “I was trying to help Jason and I ruined it and now I want to fix it.”

“For Jason? Or for Nico?”

Percy wrestles his hand out of hers. “Can you stop talking in riddles, please?” he snaps.

“You feel guilty, Percy,” she says, “That’s why you’re doing this.”

“Well, I _know_ that, Annabeth. That’s why I…”

“No, I’m not talking about Jason. I’m talking about Nico. You still feel guilty about not noticing him all those times, Percy. You feel guilty about not treating him right _then_ so you want to make it better for him _now_.”

“I don’t feel guilty about that,” Percy replies, “That was a long time ago. Everyone’s over it.”

“Everyone except you,” she says, “I would’ve thought you’d be jealous of Jason for treating Nico better than you did but you weren’t. You were relieved because you realized Nico was happy with him. You want to keep it that way, that’s why you want them to be together. And you still feel like you owe him something – that’s why you’ve been so adamant about it.”

Percy tries for a disbelieving snort but it comes out like a single bitter laugh. Annabeth glares at him. “Don’t pretend it’s not true, Percy. You thought that if you did this for him – if you got him together with Jason – it would make up for all the times you forgot about him.” She bores her eyes into his. “You know I’m right.”

Percy stares at her back, a sinking feeling in his gut. Of course he does. Annabeth is almost always right. But none of this makes a difference. “It doesn’t matter why I did it, Annabeth. I still have to fix this, don’t I? I have to go look for Nico.”

“That’ll just make it worse for him,” Annabeth says. “Especially if it’s _you_.”

Percy frowns at her. She isn’t actually… “Annabeth, you can’t be serious. You don’t actually believe he _does_ like me, do you?”

She hesitates and then shrugs. “I haven’t been paying much attention to him the past week or so – but if I had to guess… I don’t see why he would have any reason to stop Jason from kissing him if he _did_ like him. And if he said your name, that means he was thinking about you.”

“Not _that_ way,” Percy argues, “He doesn’t like me, Annabeth.”

“Think about it, Seaweed Brain. Haven’t you ever gotten the feeling that he does? He still acts very strange around you, you know.”

It’s like she knows what he’s thinking – because if he’s being honest, that’s exactly what’s going through his mind right now. There’s still an air of awkwardness around him and Nico, and sometimes he catches Nico glancing at him with a weird look on his face, and the guy always jumps about a foot away from him when he touches him. But that could mean anything. Right?

“It’s not a bad thing if he _does_ like you,” Annabeth continues gently, “I know you still feel guilty about way back when but you’re not the same person you were then. It _was_ your fault, but you made up for it by being his friend, didn’t you? And anyway, it’s not like you’re obligated to return his feelings.” She frowns. “You’d better not return his feelings.”

Percy groans and massages his temples. This is all too confusing for him – he thinks he might be getting a migraine. “But that doesn’t make any sense. Why me? Why not _Jason_? Jason’s been a hell of a lot nicer to him than I’ve ever been.” 

“You don’t choose who you fall in love with, Percy,” she steps forward and pulls his hands away from his head, taking both of them in her own like she’s reminding him. “Now Nico knows that Jason likes him and he’s probably feeling horrible about it. You going there to talk to him about Jason would just make it worse.”

Percy sighs. He can feel the exhaustion seeping into his bones, how the palms of his hands become pliant with fatigue. And it’s not that he’s sleepy – no, he’s just… tired.

He remembers weeks ago, before all of this happened, when Jason told him that Percy was the only one he trusted with secrets like these. He remembers months ago – Nico standing in front of him, red-faced, confessing to him that he liked him.

He’d only wanted to help them. How could things turn so bad so quickly?

Percy leans into her. “What do you think I should do?” he mumbles, because he has no idea where to go from here.

“Just give it time, I think,” she puts her arms around her neck and gives him a long hug. “And don’t beat yourself up about it – you did what you did for your friends. You had no idea it would turn out this way.”

Percy rests his cheek on top of her head. She smells like the stink bomb but that doesn’t matter because he does too. They’re stinky but at least they’re stinky together. 

“Ruined Nico’s life once again,” he mutters, “Somebody should give me a medal.”

He thinks she’ll probably pinch his side or something – she hates it when he gets self-deprecating. But this time she just says, “Oh, Percy,” and hugs him harder, which just makes him feel even worse.

He buries his face in her hair and closes his eyes.

~*~

Percy turns in early that night. There hasn’t been a peep out of Jason since he talked (read: argued) with him. Annabeth hugs him, kisses him, and tucks him into bed. It doesn’t even embarrass him how much of a baby he’s being. He thinks Annabeth owes him from the month before when she got sick and made him stay in bed with her and tell her every one of the bedtime stories his mom used to tell him when he was a little kid.

“Could you come check on me in a couple of hours?” he whispers to her from beneath the covers. “Just in case I have a nightmare.”

“Of course, Seaweed Brain,” she smiles at him.

She kisses him on the forehead, turns off the light and then tells him that everything will look better in the morning before leaving.

Hell yes it will.

Percy’s had a few hours to think about what happened tonight and this is what he’s come up with, what makes sense to him:

Annabeth’s almost always right – almost. There’s a huge ball of guilt and worry and hurt inside Percy’s chest but he still knows enough to not think that Nico likes him. Annabeth said it herself, she hasn’t been paying attention to Nico lately. But Percy has, and he _knows_ Nico likes Jason. There is _no way_ that he still likes Percy.

Sure, if you look at his actions from a different viewpoint, it might _seem_ like he likes Percy. But the guy’s spent the whole past week talking and sharing deep dark secrets with Jason. And Jason had told Percy that he thought Nico had flirted with him for a while in the middle there. Why would he do _any_ of that with Jason if he liked Percy?

Jason’s just being really unnecessarily stupid, Annabeth’s reading into things too much, and Nico’s being an idiot, plain and simple. Percy’s the only one who _really_ knows what’s going on, as egotistical as that sounds.

Yeah, Percy feels bad and yes, Jason and Nico probably feel even worse. But all three of them have suffered too much for this stupid… _whatever it is_ to just give up. Percy actually thought long and hard about these phases, dammit. He risked his own relationship to focus on someone else’s (well, okay, maybe ‘risked’ is too strong a word for it – but Annabeth _did_ frown at him that one time, so it’s justified).

He’s not going to sit around and whine about his problems. That’s never been a very – well – _Percy Jackson_ thing to do. Maybe he _is_ doing all of this just because he feels like he owes Nico something. That doesn’t change the fact that he really _does_ owe Jason to fix this. He might not succeed in getting them together but at least he might get them to be friends again. 

And really, all he has to do is get the two of them in the same place so they can talk it out. The only problem is that they won’t want to be within a mile of each other – which just means that the situation has to be drastic enough that they won’t think or complain about it too much.

He remembers Annabeth promising she’ll come to check on him in a few hours – he also remembers where Leo parked his giant beetle thingy. He fits Riptide’s cap on its back end (hehe) and gets to work.

His idea might be really dangerous depending on how things turn out but then again, Jason’s the one who asked for his help in the first place, didn’t he? And Percy’s determined to help him however he can.

He’s the wingman, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *wonders if I should add one-sided Percy/Nico to relationship tags*  
> I'm sorry for this whole chapter, I don't even know what happened. I just wanted to have some heartbreak in it for once (and boy did it feel good). Jercy fighting is almost as good as Jercy being bros.   
> We're pretty much near the end because there's only about two more chapters left. But have no fear, friends, this is all planned and it'll turn out A-okay in the end (unless I feel like killing one of them off, in which case you should say your goodbyes now).  
> The song title is from Masterpiece Theatre III by Marianas Trench and even if you haven't listened to any of the songs so far, you should definitely listen to this. Fits this chapter perfectly.


	8. In This Moment All I Know

Jason tries to go to sleep as soon as he gets to his cabin. 

That’s the only possible way he can think of to get rid of the embarrassment and hurt eating away at his heart, if only for a little while. But as soon as he closes his eyes, everything that happened today starts looping over and over in his mind – leaning into Nico, seeing the shock on his face, like the last thing he could imagine was Jason kissing him, like the whole idea of it had just never even occurred to him. Jason could still feel the press of Nico’s hand against his chest – a silent _stop right there_ – and the way he’d turned a bright red color, stared at Jason with wide flustered eyes and blurted, “I… _Percy_.”

Percy.

Jason had _told_ him. He’d been telling him since the very beginning but did he listen? No! He was always insisting that Nico did like Jason, completely ignoring how he was playing with Jason’s feelings by saying that. He shouldn’t have raised his hopes any higher. It just hurts even more this way.

And he knows Percy had nothing to do with it. It’s not like he’s stupid enough to think Percy’s been flirting with Nico behind his back. He doesn’t want to blame him, doesn’t want to think it’s his fault – but he can’t help it. Betrayal clogs his throat, jealousy sparks on his fingertips and when Percy shows up, the first thing Jason thinks is _it’s all because of you._

Which is just stupid because he _knows_ it isn’t, he knows Percy meant well – but now, even after it’s all blown up in Jason’s face, Percy won’t freaking give it a rest. He doesn’t understand that no matter what his intentions were, he didn’t help Jason at all. In fact, he (accidentally) made it even worse. When he looks Jason in the eye and tells him he’ll fix it, something inside Jason starts to panic because doesn’t Percy get that it was all okay before, it was all fine, and it was him trying to ‘ _fix’_ things that ended up ruining everything?

Yeah, he knows Percy’s just doing this to help him. But Jason doesn’t want his help anymore. He just wants everyone to leave him alone, _especially_ Percy and Nico. Those two can just go skipping in a meadow somewhere and make out underwater and talk to dolphins or whatever the hell Percy does that makes people fall for him. 

Except that image – of the two of them _actually_ kissing underwater – makes his heart twist painfully enough that Jason groans out loud to ease out some of the weight on his chest. He can pretend all he wants that he doesn’t care about Nico anymore but that won’t make it anything but pretending.

He stretches out on his bed for a long time, watching lightning play across his cabin’s ceiling. He tries to think of things that usually make him happy – how, after the war, his dad had looked him in the eye and told him he was proud of him, or the time he and Thalia went out together and she knew what his favorite ice cream flavor was because she remembered it from when he was a toddler. It makes him feel better for a while but his thoughts keep straying to the exact place he doesn’t want.

He does eventually fall asleep, his dreams haunted by Nico with a stupid shocked expression on his face and Percy with an even stupider wounded one. When he sits up in bed and rubs at his chest, he’s surprised to realize that he doesn’t know which one manages to hurt him more.

It’s completely dark outside by now and he spends hours flopping around on his bed, hours during which he calms down some. He doesn’t know if anyone came to check on him in the time he was asleep but if someone did, he hopes it wasn’t Percy. That’ll just make him feel even guiltier.

But at the same time, he doesn’t want to apologize to him. Some sick, twisted part of him actually _enjoyed_ it – shouting at Percy, letting his anger out, seeing that his words had affected him enough to hurt him. And then he promptly feels guilty for thinking like that because his brain isn’t addled by jealousy enough to not realize that it’s not Percy’s fault Nico likes him.

 _And_ , he reminds himself, _it’s not Nico’s fault he still likes Percy. None of this is anyone’s fault._

Except his own, probably. He should’ve known better than to think Nico might want him. What’s so special about him anyway? So he helped Nico with his problems – anyone else would’ve done the same thing in Jason’s situation. Maybe they would’ve even done it _better_. Just because he did the decent thing doesn’t make him special.

He’s probably gone and made Nico feel like crap too. He knows how horrible it feels to know that someone likes you but not be able to bring yourself to return the feelings. As if that isn’t bad enough, now Nico might think that the only reason Jason became friends with him was because he wanted to get into his pants. 

He buries his face in his pillow and groans. He should never have tried to kiss him. He should never have started this whole blue bananas thing in the first place. Things were better the way they were before. He and Nico would still be friends and so would he and Percy. Sure, he’d be getting his heart ripped out of his chest every day watching Nico ogle Percy but hey, at least it would’ve been a better situation than right now. Because to Jason, sulking in his cabin is a million times worse than having an unrequited crush on someone.

And yeah, let’s just call it a _crush_ , okay? There is no way it’s anything more than that, now that there’s rejection as proof that Jason should just give up on it.

He’s still wallowing in his misery, an arm thrown over his eyes, when his door literally _slams_ open. The first thing his inbred demigod instinct tells him to do is leap up and grab his sword, so he does, only to be met with a highly unimpressed (and slightly pissed) Annabeth.

“Annabeth,” he starts, tossing his sword away. “What are you doing here after lights out? You’re not…”

“What did you do to Percy?” she snaps at him. She folds her arms over her chest and her eyes are cold enough to make him stand straight and itch to grab his sword again.

“I didn’t do anything to Percy,” he grumbles. Did she really come here in the middle of the night to rant at him?

She glares at him. “Oh yeah? Then how do you explain _this_?”

She angrily sticks out her arm, shoving a piece of paper at him. Jason takes it, turning on the lights before reading it. It’s written in Percy’s messy scrawl, filled with a million grammar and spelling mistakes that Frank would go crazy trying to correct.

“ _Hey, Annabeth_ ,” Jason reads out loud, “ _Don’t worry, I haven’t been…_ uh, what’s this word? Kind something?”

“Kidnapped.”

“Right, kidnapped. _I’m feeling kind of crappy after the whole blow-out with Jason –_ figures he would tell you _– and I can’t sleep either so I’m going for a walk in the woods to…._ ” Jason trails off, looking at Annabeth with wide eyes. “He can’t be serious. He’s going for a walk in the woods in the middle of the night? Doesn’t he know how dangerous it is?”

Annabeth just glares at him. “Keep reading.”

Jason frowns. The woods aren’t exactly the safest place to roam around after lights out. Why isn’t she more concerned?

He looks back at the paper. “ _I won’t go in too deep but I do want to have a look at Leo’s giant bug thing. It looks really cool. I remember where Leo put it and I’m taking the shortest…._ Uh…”

“Route,” Annabeth prompts.

Apparently the latest spelling of route is _rotu._ “ _…route. I’ll just mess around a bit and come back. But if I’m not back by 3 am then you should probably start worrying that I’ve died or something._ ”

Annabeth snorts. “Probably.”

Jason glances at the clock. It’s just after three in the morning. “When did you find this note?” he asks.

“Around midnight. When I left his cabin, he asked me to check on him in a few hours. And when I got there, I found _this_. Now will you finish reading?”

There’s not much left to the note, thank Zeus. Percy’s writing is giving him a headache already, worry for him pushing back the rest of Jason’s emotions. “ _If you think I might have died, don’t worry, just go look for Leo’s machine, I’m probably there. I know you can’t see anything in the woods at night but Nico has a couple of night vision binos, and I’m taking the path where I talked to him during the game so he knows where I’ll be. You can even ask him to shadow travel you there. Leo parked the bug in the treetops but if you ask Jason’s help_ – oh no.” Jason looks at her, panicked, “No, please don’t tell me…”

“Yup,” Annabeth says, her eyes hard as stone, “He’s doing all of this to get the two of _you_ together!”

“But why? I told him to back off!”

“He obviously still wants to help you. You must’ve done a real number on him.”

She practically growls the words and Jason has to steel himself from taking a step back. She’s got her _you hurt my Percy now I hurt you_ face on and it’s not something he ever wants directed at him.

“I didn’t do anything to him,” Jason insists, “It’s not my fault he can’t just let it go.”

Annabeth snorts. “That’s hypocritical, coming from you.”

Jason narrows his eyes at her. What is that supposed to mean? “Excuse me?”

“You’ve been locked up in this cabin for hours, probably whining about Nico to yourself,” Annabeth says, “And then you unloaded it on Percy, who didn’t even do anything to hurt you – at least not on purpose. You have no idea how to deal with rejection, do you?”

Jason splutters. “Of course I do!”

“Right,” Annabeth rubs at her forehead. “Figures. I bet you’ve never been rejected by someone you liked before tonight.”

Well, he hasn’t been but… “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Are you serious?” Annabeth deadpans. “You really think that everyone who gets rejected by their crush locks themselves up and proceeds to shout at their friends that it’s their fault?”

Jason raises an eyebrow. She’s just making him feel like a drama queen. “I’m getting the feeling the answer is _no_.”

She rolls her eyes. “You’re supposed to move on, you dolt. I understand you’d want some time alone but shouting at Percy was really not a smart thing to do. Do you see what’s happened now?” She motions at the piece of paper.

Jason glances at it. It’s the most transparent attempt at getting him and Nico together yet which means Percy must’ve been desperate. Guilt starts eating away at his heart again and he collapses on his bed tiredly, running his hands through his hair. “So what do we do?” he asks, rubbing at his face.

Annabeth doesn’t say anything for a while and when he looks up, she actually looks concerned about him. She takes a seat on the bed across from him. “Leo’s in his cabin right now, trying to pinpoint where the bug actually is,” she says, “But he says it won’t work properly until we get within at least a hundred feet of the bug. Apparently its tracking system isn’t as up-to-date as Leo would like.”

“How do we get within a hundred feet of it?” Jason asks. “You guys remember where it is?”

“Yeah, but it’s going to be difficult to navigate at night. You have no idea how dark it gets in the woods during this time. We can carry torches but that might attract monsters – and it’ll be a hell of a lot easier if we know exactly where we’re supposed to go. Which is why…” she hesitates and then inclines her head towards the note.

Jason’s heart deflates. “You’re calling Nico, aren’t you?”

“Uh-huh,” Annabeth nods, “Piper’s IM-ing Hazel right now. Sorry but none of us know where he and Percy talked so we need his help. His binoculars aren’t that important, since my cabin and Leo’s both have some, but they might help. Plus, Nico works best in the dark, doesn’t he? He could just shadow travel us there, like Percy said.”

“You know this is all just another one of his master plans, right?”

Annabeth sighs. “I know. And I’m hoping he’s just messing around and when we find him he’ll be fine. But he’s been gone for more than three hours and there are all kinds of monsters out there so I just…” she shrugged, “…want to make sure he’s okay.”

“Yeah,” Jason says. Annabeth’s talking quiet all of a sudden which means he should probably leave her to her thoughts, so he busies himself with sheathing his sword and putting on his shoes. She hasn’t said that she wants him to come along for the Percy-hunt but he’s going to go even if she doesn’t want him to come. Percy’s one of the most capable demigods he’s ever met but that doesn’t mean he can’t be overpowered by monsters out in the dark woods. Seeing as how Jason’s the reason he even went out there, it’s only polite to try to get him back.

Even if he’s just falling into Percy’s trap. Oh well. He can deal with seeing Nico for an hour or two. He hopes.

“Jason,” Annabeth says.

“Hmm?”

He expects her to unload on him again but when she speaks, her tone is gentle. “I know I’ve sounded harsh about you and Nico but I really am sorry about the two of you,” she says, and Jason’s heart spasms. “I know you had high hopes and it can’t have been easy.”

“It’s okay,” Jason mumbles, “I’ll get over it.”

“Yeah you will,” Annabeth agrees, “You don’t need to date someone to be happy. Same goes for Nico. Besides, if you were only crushing on Nico because you thought you could fix him…”

“I didn’t,” Jason interrupts. “He’s got some problems, sure, but everyone does. That doesn’t mean he’s broken or that there’s anything to fix. It’d be really self-centered to think that all his problems would be solved just by dating me, so it’s not that.” He runs a hand through his hair. “I just liked him, really.”

“Liked?” Annabeth raises her eyebrows. “Past tense?”

Jason hesitates. “Well, soon to be past tense anyway.”

He thinks he sees something like pity cross her features (which makes him feel so incredibly pathetic). “Don’t worry,” she says kindly, “It might not have worked out with him but that doesn’t mean it won’t work out with anyone else. And trust me, when it’s meant to be, it’ll feel right – like coming home.”

It’s hard believe what she’s saying because it’s not like Jason wants it to work out with anyone other than Nico, but he nods to tell her he understands. She reaches into her pocket and brings out a drachma. 

“I’m going to go check on why it’s taking Leo and Piper so long,” she says, getting up. “Meanwhile, you IM Reyna and ask her if she knows where Nico is.”

She hands him the drachma and Jason stares at it. “Reyna.”

“You guys are okay now, right?”

“We won’t be wearing matching friendship bracelets anytime soon but yeah, I think so,” Jason gets up and starts to look for one of those water gun things. “Tell me when you guys are ready to leave, okay? You’ll probably need my help.”

“Will do,” Annabeth agrees, opening the front door. “Hey, Jason?”

Jason looks up at her from where he’s going through the junk in his closet. “Yeah?”

The lightning in his cabin decides to strike right then, illuminating Annabeth and casting shadows in her cheeks. “If you hurt my boyfriend enough for him to do something like this ever again,” she says in a low voice accompanied by a quiet rumble of thunder, “I will castrate you, son of Zeus or not. Got it?”

Jason swallows and hopes to the gods he hasn’t pissed his pants. “Yes, Annabeth,” he squeaks.

“Good. See you later then.” She gives him a devious smile and leaves. The cabin actually seems a lot brighter once she’s gone. He’s a hundred percent sure even the statue of Zeus looked a little worried when she threatened him.

He finds the water gun and gets the rainbow ready. Usually he carries out his IMs in Percy’s cabin where there’s a whole fountain and light comes in at just the right angle to make rainbows without you even trying. Of course, if he goes in there now he’ll probably get hit by a god-awful wave of guilt and jealousy so let’s just avoid that.

Reyna’s in Camp Jupiter’s armory, a clipboard in her hands, when he finally connects through to her. He’s glad he didn’t catch her doing something private – Hazel’s told him about the time she caught Reyna in the baths, so Jason always keeps his eyes half-closed whenever he IMs her.

“Let me guess,” is the first thing she says when she sees his face, “You want to see Nico?”

Jason winces. “Not in the least. I just want you to give him a message if he’s anywhere near you.”

Reyna raises her eyebrows. “Contacting Hazel would make a lot more sense. I have things to do, you know.”

“Yeah, why _are_ you in the armory at three in the morning?”

Reyna sighs and it’s only then that Jason notices how tired she looks. “Octavian filed a complaint that he thinks someone’s been stealing from the armory. Frank said he would appoint someone to do inventory tomorrow but just the thought of someone stealing from the _legion_ was bugging me so much…” she gestures helplessly at the racks of weapons and armor.

“You couldn’t wait,” Jason smiles, “Of course not.”

“Don’t take the fond tone with me,” Reyna glares at him, “I’m not very happy with you, you know.”

“What? What did I do?”

“That’s what I would like to know,” Reyna folds her arms around the clipboard, “Nico arrived here a few hours ago extremely upset. There are only a few people who can make him _that_ upset and you’re one of them. So what did you do?”

“Why do you assume _I_ did something to _him_ instead of the other way around?”

Reyna’s stern expression falters. “Did he?”

Jason sighs. “Let’s just say Percy’s Operation Blue Bananas was a complete failure. As it turns out, Nico liked _him_ the whole time.”

“What?” Reyna frowns, looking so confused that it would actually be funny in any other situation where Jason’s heart wasn’t ripped into a million pieces. “But how…?”

“It doesn’t matter. Look, Percy’s gone and got himself lost in the woods here at camp so we sort of need Nico’s help to navigate around and find him. Could you pass on the message?”

Reyna still looks puzzled but she nods. “Alright. But I don’t know if he’s going to want to help you. Everyone else is sleeping here, you know.”

“Tell him if he doesn’t help us, we’ll probably find a dead seaweed-filled son of Poseidon in the morning,” Jason mutters. “ _That_ should be enough encouragement for him to get his butt up.”

The puzzled looks on her face melts into empathy. She gives him a small smile. “Don’t be bitter, Jason. It’ll just make things worse for you. Trust me, I know.”

Jason blinks. Before he can ask her what she really means, she says, “I’ll go look for him then. See you whenever, Jason,” and then cuts the connection between the two of them.

Jason sits there for a while, too lazy and tired to move, before realizing that yeah, Nico might be arriving here soon enough, depending on how fast his shadow travelling abilities really are. He spends the next few minutes washing his face and fixing his hair. It’s kind of (read: very) pathetic how he still wants to look good in front of Nico even if he can’t have him – but whatever, that’s his business.

When he steps out of the cabin, he sees that a few campers are already awake. No one looks very surprised that Percy’s missing though. Jason understands. When Annabeth sounded the alarm that he was gone, the rest of the camp probably sighed and said, “Must be Tuesday.”

Annabeth, Leo and Piper are already clustered together at the edge of the forest, all three of them ready with their weapons, when Jason joins them. “IM’ed Reyna,” Jason reports to Annabeth, “She said she’d pass the message on.”

“To Nico?” Piper asks. “I already talked to Hazel. She says Nico’s on his way.”

Jason’s stomach does this stupid flip-flop thing. He can’t decide whether he’s dreading seeing him or if he’s excited for it. Probably a bit of both, seeing as how Jason’s obviously not right in the head (you just need the whole stapler incident as proof of that).

“The five of us are going to move into the woods alone,” Annabeth explains to Jason, “Chiron says that Percy might be completely fine, if his note is anything to go by, so there’s nothing to worry about. If we’re not back in two hours, the rest of the camp’s going to come after us.”

“If we get close enough to the Beetle, we should get a signal,” Leo says as he fiddles with a device in his hands. It looks strangely like an iPod except a lot thicker and with Power Rangers stickers covering it (which Jason decides not to ask about). “Let’s just hope the Beetle’s where I left it.”

Annabeth frowns. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

Leo’s head snaps up. As if realizing everyone’s been listening to him the whole time, Leo’s eyes switch from one person to the next. “Uh… no reason.”

“Valdez, I swear to the gods if you forgot to mention _another_ problem we have to deal with…”

“Hey!” Leo jumps up quickly, looking over Jason’s shoulder and shoving the tracing device into his toolbelt. “Look who’s here!”

Jason doesn’t even have to turn around. He just sidesteps – practically into Piper – to give space for Nico to stand with them. His face feels like it’s on fire and Piper rolling her eyes at him does not help.

Nico doesn’t even glance at him, which brings on a whole new wave of heartbreak. 

“Did you find where he is yet?” he asks Leo. His voice sounds croakier than usual and it should _not_ be attractive at all. 

“No, we’ll have to get closer to the Beetle to pinpoint his location. But hey, you can get us there, can’t you?”

Nico peers into the forest. Jason keeps his eyes away from him. “I can shadow travel us to the place where the two of us talked during the game. After that, it’s up to you.”

Jason wants to ask him if it would be safe for him to shadow travel all five of them, and that too after just shadow travelling here himself. However, his vow of silence (let’s be real – it’s the silent treatment, plain and simple) keeps him from saying anything. Thankfully, Annabeth asks Nico the exact same thing.

“I’ll be fine,” Nico says, “It’s not that far away. Besides, I’ve already done more than enough shadow travelling for one day. Might as well squeeze some more in.”

He shrugs like it’s no big deal, like one instance of his shadow travelling today wasn’t to get as far away from Jason as possible. Jason doesn’t understand why he’s being so offhand. He _knows_ Jason likes him now. You’d think he’d be nicer to him but _no_. 

He’d probably be nice to Percy if he was here.

“Do all of you have to come along, though?” Nico continues, “The less people there are, the easier it will be.”

As soon as the words are out of his mouth, everyone – even Leo – glances at Jason. It’s no secret what Nico’s trying to hint at – he doesn’t want _Jason_ to come along. The air becomes thick and awkward. Piper and Leo start shuffling around while Annabeth just looks annoyed like _good gods my boyfriend might be dead and here I’m stuck with you and your boy problems why am I always surrounded by complete idiots._

Jason supposes he should feel hurt or whatever but any pain he actually feels goes right out the window as he openly glares at Nico. So he’s making Nico uncomfortable just by _existing_ now, is he? Percy’s his friend too, he has a right to go with them. Just because Nico doesn’t know how to handle this weird situation with him doesn’t mean he’s going to stay behind.

“I want to make sure he’s okay too,” he says to Nico, keeping his tone cold, “And if anything’s gone wrong, I want to help. I’m not going to sit around while my friend’s in trouble.”

Nico looks at him, startled. His eyes widen a bit. “What? I wasn’t… No, I didn’t say you had to stay behind,” he shakes his head quickly, his hair brushing the collar of his jacket. “No, of course _you’d_ want to come. I meant if someone else…?” he looks at the other three.

“We’re all going, Nico,” Annabeth says, “If it’s too hard for you, then I suppose…”

“No, it’s fine,” Nico shakes his head again. He looks a little flustered but Jason’s still a bit annoyed to wonder what that’s about. Nico holds out his hand and – _holy crap_ he’s wearing those stupid black fingerless gloves and Jason remembers a few months ago when he told Percy that those stupid black fingerless gloves have got to be the most attractive gloves he’s ever seen but _holy crap_ why now, stupid black fingerless gloves, why _now_?

He’s still staring at the stupid black fingerless gloves when Piper elbows him. Everyone’s looking at him expectantly and that’s when he realizes Nico’s grabbed Annabeth’s hand, who’s got her other hand in Leo’s, who’s hand-in-hand with Piper. Piper slips her own hand in his – it feels small and warm and soft just like he remembers – and then nods towards Nico’s other hand.

Jason makes eye contact with Nico for a split second before he takes his hand in his, the glove sliding against his skin. The look on Nico’s face is unreadable as he closes his eyes and concentrates.

The five of them stand there in a circle for a while, looking like they’re taking part in some sort of Satanic ritual. Then Nico squeezes his hand once, Jason whips his head up to look at him, and the world around them dissolves.

~*~

He really should not have moved his head while they were shadow travelling. When they do finally melt out of the shadows in the woods, Jason’s head is throbbing. He rests against a tree trunk and starts massaging his temples.

The woods around them are so inky black, Jason can’t see anything farther than about two feet. The trees loom overhead, the thick canopy blocking any moonlight from coming in, and soft growls and noises of twigs snapping come from every side. Percy’s such an idiot for coming out here alone.

“You okay, man?” Leo groans from beside him. He’s crouching by Jason’s feet, his head in his hands.

“No. You?”

“Hold that thought,” Leo says and then proceeds to puke into a nearby bush.

“Wow, strong reaction,” Nico says as Leo heaves and retches. “Let me guess – you tried to do something stupid while we were travelling?”

Leo tears a giant leaf off of a tree and wipes his mouth with it. “Does jumping and trying to yodel count as stupid?”

“You’re kidding.”

“I just wanted to know if I could do it!” Leo protests. “But I couldn’t even get in a breath to yodel. And I’m so good at it too.”

“You can yodel?” Nico asks skeptically.

“Yeah, you want a demo?” Leo says. Without waiting for Nico’s answer, he clears his throat and opens his mouth.

Jason’s already got his hands on his ears when Piper jumps forward and slaps a hand on Leo’s mouth. “Don’t you dare,” she says firmly, and then seems to realize that she just touched the mouth of a boy who’d been vomiting a few seconds ago. 

“Alright,” Annabeth says while in the background, Piper screams in disgust and wipes her hand on every possible surface available, “Leo, you should be able to track your machine now. I don’t think we’re that far away from where the battle took place.”

“We’re not,” Leo says, holding up the device so they can look at its screen – which is pointless because the screen is stupidly tiny. “Only about seventy feet in that direction.” Leo points at their two o’clock, out into the dark woods.

Nico nods. “Yeah, sounds about right.”

“Great,” Annabeth says, “Nico and Leo, you guys lead the way. Everyone stick together and keep your ears open and your eyes peeled. I have no idea how many monsters there are lurking out there.” She glances anxiously around herself. She’s probably worried sick about Percy and why he hasn’t come back yet. Percy’s so incredibly lucky she hasn’t dumped his butt yet, although to be honest, his butt is probably the reason she hasn’t dumped his butt yet.

Jason frowns. Did he just internally admit to himself that Percy has a nice butt? 

Well, whatever, Percy’s rated Jason’s butt a ten out of ten already so there. Percy’s is only probably an eight at most.

They head out into the woods with Nico walking in front, followed by Jason and Leo, with Piper and Annabeth bringing up the rear. Leo fiddles with his thingamabob and the girls talk in hushed tones the whole time, so Jason’s left to stare holes into the back of Nico’s head. He hopes Nico can feel it.

It’s not like he’s asking for much, is he? He doesn’t want Nico to force himself to like Jason back. But it’d be nice to be acknowledged, for him to at least apologize for hurting him. Or even tell Jason that there’s no way they could ever be together. At least that would give him some closure. Acting like none of that ever happened – acting like he doesn’t even want to be _near_ Jason – is a low blow. 

He doesn’t even feel all that brokenhearted about it anymore. Now he just wants to dance in front of Nico screaming, “ _DO YOU NOTICE ME NOW?!”_

He should really stop spending so much time with Percy. That is, if he and Percy ever become friends again. He buries his hands in his jean pockets. Why is everything so complicated?

“Here we are,” Annabeth announces.

They step into the clearing where the game had taken place. There aren’t enough trees to block the moonlight so they can look around pretty clearly. There are still pockmarks in the ground and a slight odor in the air but when they look around for a giant bug machine parked in the trees, there’s none.

“Wait,” Leo frowns, “I put the machine right there but…”

Annabeth plucks his device out of his hands. “This says it’s twenty feet further _out_ of the clearing,” she says, raising an eyebrow.

“Maybe Percy maneuvered it there,” Piper adds, “Leo said it was pretty easy to use, didn’t he? X-Box game controllers and all? Although I don’t see why he would.”

“I don’t think that’s it,” Leo says. He’s got a highly serious look on his face and when Leo Valdez looks like that, you know something bad has happened.

“Annabeth,” Leo turns to her, “Remember how you told us about the anthill of the giant fire ants you saw a few years ago?”

“The Myrmekes?” Annabeth says, “Yeah, why?”

“Where are they exactly?”

“Uh, I’m not sure but I guess about thirty or twenty feet that…” she trails off, her eyes slowly widening as realization dawns on her. “ _Oh_.”

“Yup,” Leo says miserably, “Isn’t this sucktastic?”

“Wait, hold on,” Jason raises his hands. “What’s going on? What do the Myrmekes have to do with anything?”

“I know I probably should’ve mentioned this before,” Leo says to the rest of them, “But I didn’t want to worry you guys. But… well…” he rubs the back of his neck, “Myrmekes are sort of attracted to shiny objects and collect them and my bug’s kind of a shiny red beacon so…”

The others just stare at him. Finally, Annabeth says, in the calmest voice ever, “And if you knew there was a risk of Myrmekes dragging away your bug in the middle of the night, Leo, what possessed you to park it in the woods?”

“I, uh, thought they couldn’t climb trees so I thought keeping it in the air would be enough?” Leo asks hopefully.

Annabeth’s eye is twitching. Jason thinks he should probably step in before she rips out Leo’s jugular with her teeth.

“Well, whatever you did, Leo,” he says, stepping in between them, “At least now we know where Percy is. So let’s go get him.”

“You’re underestimating Myrmekes, Jason,” Annabeth says through gritted teeth. “The only reason Percy and I didn’t die all those years ago was because we _didn’t_ try to face those ants head on.”

“Are they really that dangerous?” Piper asks.

“Their exoskeleton is impenetrable,” Annabeth says, “Their mandibles can pierce easily through our flesh. They’re extremely fast and can even climb completely vertical surfaces –,” her face pales in horror, “not to mention, they _spray acid_ at a speed of…”

“Okay, let’s not get worked up, guys,” Piper interrupts loudly. She grabs Annabeth’s hand and shoulders her way forward. “Everyone, follow me. We have a Percy to save.”

“Uh, Pipes, I’m the one who has the tracking device,” Leo points out.

Piper lets out a long-suffering sigh and shoves him in front of her. “Fine, then – everyone follow Leo. _He_ has a Percy to save, apparently.”

By some sad twist of fate, Jason and Nico end up walking side-by-side. Nico has his hands buried in his pockets, looking at the woods around him and generally acting like Jason doesn’t exist. Before he can stop himself, Jason blurts out, “You don’t have to act that way, you know.”

Nico’s head snaps towards him. He frowns for a bit before replying, “Like what?”

“Like nothing ever happened,” Jason answers. He keeps his voice low so the others won’t be able to hear him – which is kind of unnecessary since they’re talking among themselves but still. 

“I’m not acting like that,” Nico says, uneasily fidgeting with his jacket collar.

“Yes you are,” Jason insists. “And it’s not like we can’t move past it. I mean, it was just stupid, so…” he shrugs. “It was a mistake anyway. I never should’ve done it. Or tried to do it anyway.”

Something flits across Nico’s face before he composes his expression and nods. “Yeah, definitely.”

And even though Jason was the one who even said it, and Nico was just agreeing, it still hurts a bit. Jason nods too and then the two of them lapse into one of the most uncomfortable silences in Jason’s life.

Jason’s trying to keep his eyes on the ground and his mind off of Nico when he walks into Piper in front of him. They’ve stopped walking all of a sudden and the reason is clear when Leo holds his thingamajig up high and shows them that his bug machine is only a few feet in front of them.

“If only we could see in front of us,” he grumbles.

“Hold on,” Nico pulls out a pair of binoculars too big for his hands. When he puts them against his eyes, they practically swallow his whole face.

“Uh-oh,” he says.

“Uh-oh?” Annabeth asks, grabbing for the binoculars. “What do you mean, uh-oh?”

She puts them to her eyes and peers forward. “Uh-oh,” she says. “Anthill straight ahead.”

“Is it?” Leo squints into the darkness. “Can you see my Beetle?”

“Your Beetle?” Piper snaps. “Leo, Percy might be dead and you…”

“Well, _yeah_ , I’m worried about him too but I worked really hard on that machine, you know…”

“Could you guys keep it down?” Annabeth interrupts, “I’m not sure exactly how strong their hearing is but let’s not risk it.”

“Their?” Jason says. “So you can see the ants?”

Annabeth just wordlessly hands him the binoculars.

The world appears to Jason in shades of bright green through the binoculars. He thinks he’ll need to look for the anthill but nope – he can see it clearly between the parting of two trees and it is _massive_. He knows they call it an anthill but he didn’t actually think it would be a _hill_. It is, though, a hill made of sand full of holes that giant fire ants protrude out of, silently crawling all across the woodland floor. Their antennae hang in front of their beady eyes heavily, their mandibles drip saliva, and their limbs piston furiously when they crawl. He can’t believe they’re only a few feet away from them. If even one of the ants spots them, they’ll be dead meat in no time.

The worst thing? He can see a few ants drag a giant mechanical antenna into their anthill home. A giant mechanical antenna that he last saw attached to Leo’s bug. 

A feeling of panic rises in his throat. He’s going to kill Percy if he isn’t okay.

He lowers the binoculars and turns to Annabeth. “So what’s the plan?”

~*~

Shadow travelling is obviously the easiest way to get into the anthill and they’re going to need Leo if they have to open the bug up to save Percy, so Nico and Leo are the obvious choices to go into the anthill. Annabeth, Piper and Jason, meanwhile, have to distract the Myrmekes long enough for Nico and Leo to drag Percy out.

Jason’s not sure how the distracting part of the plan is going to work out until Piper starts shouting.

The three of them are perched onto a high branch while Nico and Leo hide in the shadows below. As soon as Leo gives the thumbs up that he and Nico are ready to go, Piper opens her mouth.

“ _HEY, UP HERE!”_ she bellows. _“WE’RE A BUNCH OF SNOT-NOSED DEMIGODS WHO JUST UP AND WALKED INTO YOUR TERRITORY! AREN’T YOU GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT, YA STUPID ANTS?”_

It’s actually kind of scary how all the ants’ heads swivel towards them. Then one of them chitters in a high-pitched voice and they start swarming around the tree, some of them already climbing it. 

Jason grabs the girls and flies off into another treetop, Piper still screaming at the ants the whole time while Annabeth whispers instructions into his ear. There’s no sign of Nico or Leo down there anymore which means they’re already in the anthill and hopefully still alive. There are ants swarming out of the anthill towards the three of them too. He doesn’t know how many ants there are in total but he hopes the anthill’s empty by now.

They get into a silly kind of rhythm, jumping from one tree to the next while Piper shouts obscenities at the Myrmekes who keep trying to corner them (and fail miserably). At one point, some of the Myrmekes get frustrated enough to spit acid their way but they’re too high to get hit at any angle the ants could manage (at least according to Annabeth). Most of the acid just splatters onto the tree trunks around them and some of it even wobbles slightly in the air and falls back onto the ground below.

All in all, it’s going good. Until Leo’s scream pierces the air. That’s when the ants all pause and then start to swarm back into the anthill.

“ _HEY!”_ Piper roars desperately. _“HEY, NO, YOU COME BACK HERE! WE’RE UP HERE, YOU NINCOMPOOPS, YOU CAN’T JUST…_ ”

“Jason,” Annabeth says urgently as Piper insults the ants’ mothers, “Go inside.”

Jason turns to her, bewildered. “Huh?”

“Go into the anthill! Make sure they haven’t been attacked.”

“But who’s going to keep flying you guys everywhere?”

“We’ll handle it,” Annabeth tells him firmly, and then pushes him off the tree branch. “Go!”

Jason doesn’t think twice. He zooms over the army of ants, most of who are thankfully not going back into the anthill anymore, and enters their home.

And, well, he really didn’t expect the inside of an anthill to be this shiny. 

It takes a while for his eyes to adjust and for him to realize that almost every corner in the anthill is stuffed with towers and towers of glinting, shiny objects – armor and weapons, jewelry and precious stones, even knives and forks and mirrors. So giant killer fire ants really do have magpie tendencies.

The other side of the anthill is what really catches his eye though. Mainly because that area is completely dominated by Leo’s bug machine with its hatch lying wide open. None of his friends are anywhere to be seen.

Jason hears a high chittering noise behind him and turns just in time to see an ant advance on him. Without even thinking about it, he stabs it in the eye with his sword, summons electricity and watches it course down his sword into the ant. The ant collapses and starts spasming wildly.

“Nico?” Jason calls. “Leo?”

Nico’s head pops out from behind a corner of the machine and his eyes widen almost comically. “What are you doing here?”

“Where’s _Leo_? I heard him scream.”

Nico shakes his head. “It was an ant. Don’t worry, I took care of it.”

Nico waves him over. He and Leo have made a corner of their own inside the anthill. A beheaded ant lies next to them and Percy’s sitting bound and gagged in the middle of it while the two boys try to pull him free. Instead or ropes though, Percy’s arms, legs and mouth are covered in a plastic-like substance that circles his whole body.

Instead of cutting through the substance like Jason would assume, Leo’s busy burning it off. It curls and blackens under Leo’s flame, weakening its hold around Percy’s body bit by bit.

“We couldn’t slice it with my sword,” Nico mutters to Jason, “It’s like impenetrable hardened glue or something.”

Jason turns to him to reply but whatever he was going to say flits out of his mind when he realizes how close Nico’s face is. Nico apparently notices this too because he shifts his crouch and turns away.

“Mmfff!” Percy says. His eyes are blazing hard as he glares at Jason.

“What?” Jason asks.

Percy jerks his head towards Nico. “Mm-mm-mmffh!”

“Dude, hold on a second, will you?” Leo asks. He holds up his hand near the bonds on Percy’s face. Jason worries for a second that the flames might burn Percy but the weird material doesn’t even catch flame – it just curls right off his face.

The lower half of Percy’s face is paler than the upper, like it was cut off from circulation for a long time. Percy works his jaw for a bit and then glares at Jason and spits, “I did _not_ put myself into imminent danger just so you can squirm your way out of talking to him again. And you know you owe me after _screaming_ at me yesterday. Do it!”

Jason and Nico both stare at him. Before Jason has time to ask, two more ants enter the anthill. They make quick work of them and once there’s two more dead ant bodies lying around, Jason turns to Percy and squeaks, “What?” 

The rest of Percy’s body is still bound but he flops his legs around angrily. “Talk to him!” he growls. “And you!” he snaps at Nico. “You stay and listen to him, you understand me? I didn’t almost _die_ for this not to work!”

“For what not to work?” Nico demands, confused.

Jason gets it though. “Oh my gods,” he says, “I was right – you _did_ do all of this just to get us to talk again!” He surges forward, grabs Percy’s shoulders and shakes them. “What is the matter with you? What part of ‘don’t do anything’ did you not _get_?”

“Hey, playing with fire here!” Leo protests, holding up his flaming hands. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t move him around so much – he happens to be highly flammable.”

“Leo, tell them they need to talk,” Percy says, craning his head towards him.

Leo rolls his eyes. “Bro, this is _so_ not the time…”

“ _Leo_.”

“Oh, fine. Talk to your little skeleton boyfriend, will you, Jason?”

“I can talk to him some other time,” Jason snaps at Percy, “Right now, we need to get you out of here and…”

“Ant!” Nico roars. Jason turns in time to see Nico jab his sword inside an ant’s mouth and slice it open from the inside out.

“As if!” Percy continues like nothing even happened. “We both know ‘some other time’ is never going to come. You either talk to him right now or I’m not leaving this anthill.”

Chitters fill the air again and Jason whips around in time to send a ball of pure electric energy a Myrmeke’s way. Once it’s collapsed, he turns to Percy again. “You have _got_ to be kidding me. Do you know how dangerous it is for us here?”

Percy just glares at him angrily and firmly keeps his butt in place. Leo raises an eyebrow at Jason as he frees Percy’s arms. “Hey, so dying in an anthill wasn’t exactly the way I wanted to go,” he says calmly, “So could you, you know…?” he motions towards Nico.

Jason rubs a hand across his face and turns to Nico, who looks at him almost apprehensively. Percy just folds his arms and sits back as Leo frees his legs. Jason can’t believe they’re doing this right now. Percy’s so stupid – this is hardly the time.

Before he can open his mouth, Nico speaks up. “I’m guessing this is about yesterday?” he says miserably.

“Yup,” Jason answers.

Nico sighs and turns to Percy. “You’re not a person I want to have this conversation in front of.”

Of course he doesn’t. He doesn’t want to admit in front of Percy that he likes him. Percy just gives Nico a hard look. “Well, we can’t have everything we want, can we?” he replies. “Heads up, there’s a Myrmeke behind the two of you.”

“I got it,” Leo volunteers. He blasts fire into the ants face, successfully burning its eyes and open mouth. Nico finishes the job by slicing off its head.

“Look, there isn’t even anything to talk about,” Jason throws his hands up in exasperation. “I’m sorry about yesterday. I shouldn’t have done what I did – I shouldn’t have _assumed_ stuff and I’m sorry, okay?”

“Well, obviously,” Nico snorts, wiping ant blood off his cheek, “Why in the world would you think I’d be okay with it?”

Jason’s heart sinks. Is kissing Jason really that unappealing to him? 

“I mean, I’m not that desperate, you know,” Nico glares at Jason. “I’m not going to be anyone’s _second_ choice.”

Welp, there go all of Jason’s hopes about – wait, what?

“Wait, what?” Percy frowns. Even Leo looks up, confused. Then his expression changes into horror.

“It’s a trio!” he screams, pointing. 

These stupid ants are really starting to annoy him. Jason jumps up, his sword held high as he jabs at one of the ant’s eyes. Jason’s friends immediately follow.

“Second choice?” Jason asks Nico over the noise. “What does that mean?”

“Are you kidding?” a nerve jumps in Nico’s jaw as he manipulates the ground to swallow the ant up. “You _know_ what it means.”

“Uh, no I don’t.” Jason hacks at an ant.

“Uh, yes you do.” Nico kicks at another one’s eyes.

“Uh, no I…”

“Oh my gods, could you guys just _do_ this?” Percy screams, slicing an ant’s leg off in exasperation. “Why is it so _hard_? You like each other, could you just _admit_ it already?”

Blood rushes to Jason’s face so fast he actually feels a bit woozy. Nico looks as red in the face as he feels. Leo stumbles away from a flaming ant corpse and slaps his hands onto his mouth, giggling.

“Huh?” Nico mumbles, and Leo collapses on the floor, grabbing his middle and laughing so loud, Jason’s worried the ants outside can hear him.

“That isn’t…” Jason splutters. “He’s not… Leo, could you stop _laughing_?”

“You like each other,” Percy deadpans, turning Riptide back to pen form and climbing off the dead ant body (Jason doesn’t even want to know what he was doing on top of it).

“No he doesn’t,” Jason glares at him, sheathing his own sword. He turns to Nico and forces the words out. “It’s fine, I know you like Percy and I’m fine with it, really.”

He expects Nico to nod solemnly and say something like, “Well thanks for letting him know while he’s right there.” Nico, however, does the last thing he expects him to do.

The confusion deepens even further on his face as he frowns and says, “Wait, don’t _you_ like Percy?”

On the ground, Leo stops laughing, pausing mid-roll. Percy gapes at Nico. There’s complete silence in the anthill as Jason tries to process what exactly Nico’s just said.

“ _Percy_?” Leo snorts.

“What?” Jason says.

“ _Me_?” Percy asks.

“What?” Jason repeats.

“Why doesn’t anyone ever have a crush on _me_?” Leo whines.

“Why the hell would I like _Percy_?” Jason cries. “I mean, look at him!”

Percy turns to him, offended. “ _Excuse_ me?”

“I know,” Nico agrees, nodding fervently, “I didn’t understand why you would like him either.”

“Hey!” Percy protests. “You used to have a crush on me, you can’t say that!”

“Wait, so you _don’t_ like him?” Jason asks, stepping towards Nico.

“No!” Nico says, eyes wide. “Why would you even think I would?”

“Because yesterday! During Capture the Flag – when you said ‘Percy’ and I….” 

Nico raises his eyebrows at him. Jason stops mid-sentence as he realizes what a complete idiot he’s been. “Ah,” he says weakly, “Okay.”

“Okay?” Percy says impatiently. “What _okay_? Can someone explain to me what’s going on? _Leo, stop laughing already!_ ”

“Second choice,” Jason remembers, running a hand through his hair, “So you thought… You thought I liked Percy and I was just… what, goofing off with you?”

Nico’s ears turn pink and he folds his arms. “Maybe,” he mumbles, “And I’m not desperate enough to keep it happening. I mean, it’s not good enough if I’m just a replacement for someone…”

Jason raises his eyebrows disbelievingly. Why on earth would Nico be a replacement for anyone? Percy’s mouth turns into an O shape as he finally catches up to what’s happening and Leo just chills on the ground while Jason watches Nico stare at his shoes, trying to think of something to say.

“So wait,” Nico says, looking up, “Does this mean you _don’t_ like him?”

“Well, not _him_ , yeah,” Jason says easily. It’s not until the words are out of his mouth that he realizes he put emphasis on ‘him’. And by that point, Nico’s already flushing and it’s obvious he knows now.

“Not him,” Nico repeats. “So who then?”

“Oh, please,” Percy interrupts, “I just announced that you guys like each other. Honestly, are you still asking these kinds of questions?”

And well, it’s all out in the open now but it still makes Jason’s face heat up. Nico’s eyes catch on Jason’s for a while, probably waiting for Jason to deny it, but Jason knows better than to do that. He keeps holding Nico’s gaze for as long as he can, trying to tell him what he’s too cowardly to say out loud. After a few seconds, Nico flushes and looks down at the point on the ground where the ant was swallowed up and pulls at his sleeves, an action that’s weirdly shy.

Jason stares at him. How could he have not seen this? He and Percy are together almost 24/7, they fake-flirt all the time, and Nico knew that Jason liked boys _and_ had first-hand experience on why someone would fall in love with Percy. All those times he asked Jason about Percy make sense now. He wasn’t trying to get information about Percy out of him. He was trying to gauge how close they were. 

So yesterday when Jason moved in to kiss him, Nico must’ve thought he was settling for the next best thing. Was that why he’d stopped him? Because he doesn’t want to date Jason desperately enough to be someone’s replacement?

How could he actually think that? He’s not the next best thing – he’s _the_ best thing. How does he possibly not know that?

And – the million-dollar question – doesn’t all of this mean he likes Jason back?

“You know,” Leo says casually, still stretched out on the ground, “I think it’s funny how we’re sitting here talking about our feelings while Annabeth and Piper are probably being roasted over a spit outside.”

That breaks the atmosphere fast enough. Percy jumps into action, already panicking about his girlfriend and rushing for the entrance, dragging a still-giggling Leo Valdez behind him. Jason keeps standing there with Nico for a while longer – just looking at him and realizing that yeah, it _does_ mean that Nico likes him, that Nico actually _likes_ him, this isn’t just another one of Percy’s mind games, Nico’s as good as admitted that he likes him.

And yeah, he’s as good as admitted that he likes him back but he sort of already did that yesterday so it’s no biggie.

Except it is. It’s a biggie and it’s _awesome_.

Nico clears his throat. There’s still a bit pink to his cheeks and he keeps his eyes trained on the ground. When he speaks, his tone is adorably nervous. “So, uh,” he says, “We should probably go.”

 _No, we should probably kiss, because it’s about time,_ Jason thinks. However, in the interest of having a good ‘first kiss’ story for the future (kissing inside an anthill isn’t exactly romantic, you see), he nods and says, “Yeah, okay.”

“Okay,” Nico repeats. His voice is only slightly above a whisper and the way he’s chewing at his lip is seriously messing with Jason.

“Nico,” Jason says.

He doesn’t look up. “Yeah?”

He bites at his lip as he says it and then, because Jason has zero self-control around Nico di Angelo, he walks forward, leans down, and kisses his warm cheek.

The look Nico gives him after makes the whole drama worthwhile.

~*~

It’s only when they come outside that Jason realizes that oh yeah, there’s still an Ants versus Demigods battle to fight. It’s weird how it feels like the world should just pause for a while. 

None of their friends are dead, thankfully, (that would sour Jason’s mood a little, he has to admit) but as soon as Jason sees them practically surrounded by angry Myrmekes, he decides they should just call it a night.

It’s really impressive though, how many fire ants Piper and Annabeth have managed to slay on their own. Leo’s busy setting fire to a few of them while Percy shoves a whole wall of them backwards with the help of a wave he calls from the nearby creeks. Leo asks if they should kill all of them – because, honestly, they might be able to manage it – but Annabeth says that they’re part of the ecosystem here now and it’d be wrong to.

Nico calls a few of the dead to deal with the Myrmekes so the demigods can make a clean break. Leo whines, “What about my Beetle?” the whole way.

“Well, who told you to put it out in the open anyway?” Percy snaps while Annabeth’s squeezing the Hades out of him. “Seriously, dude, I was just sitting up in that thing, minding my own business and then those stupid _ants_ came out of nowhere and dragged the whole thing away with _me_ inside of it. I’m glad it’s gone.”

Leo glares at Percy and proceeds to throw a screwdriver at him. And yes, it does bonk Jason’s skull instead. It hurts like hell, sure, but Nico almost touches it out of concern so he’ll forgive Leo just this once.

When they get back into camp, Chiron gives Percy a long lecture on why he should never ‘go for walks’ out in the woods in the middle of the night. He makes the rest of them listen too, which is seriously annoying. Everyone’s getting drowsy – it’s almost five in the morning by now – but Jason’s wide awake, his whole body completely charged up. He just really wants to talk to Nico alone. He spends the whole lecture glancing at him from the corner of his eye. He catches Nico looking at him a few times too, and it makes him so excited he needs to pee.

Once Chiron is done talking, everyone disperses to their own cabins. Piper gives Percy a one-armed hug when she leaves, while Leo gives him a highly rude hand gesture which Percy returns with a huge grin on his face. Annabeth sucks face with him for a few seconds before going back to her cabin and then it’s just the three of them sitting on the porch of the Big House.

Percy’s sitting between the two of them and Jason wants him to keep sitting there like he wants to find hair in his food. He slings one arm around Jason’s shoulders and raises an eyebrow at him and Jason can already see the _so people think you have a crush on me do they_ jokes coming on.

“Don’t even think about it,” he says.

“Oh come on,” Percy grins, “You gotta admit, it’s kind of funny.”

Well, _now_ it is, now that they’re looking back on it. When he was living all that heartbreak though, it wasn’t funny at all.

“You know you’re really not helping, right?” Nico says to Percy.

“Excuse you, Nico, _I_ am the reason this even worked.”

“And you’re also the reason it didn’t,” Jason points out.

“Funny how life works like that, huh?” Percy says.

It’s nice how they’re laying everything out in front of them and talking so freely after such a long time of hiding their feelings but Jason still doesn’t feel like properly confessing to Nico with Percy sitting between them watching the show. Jason’s like ninety-nine percent sure Percy would actually bring popcorn and 3-D glasses along with him if Jason asked him to stay and watch.

So he gives Percy a meaningful look and Percy nods. “Well,” he says, removing his arm from around Jason’s shoulders, “I should hit the hay. Exciting night, huh?”

“Sure, exciting’s the word for it,” Nico says dryly.

Percy laughs and ruffles his hair which kind of catches Jason off-guard. He knows Percy and Nico have still had that awkward air between them and he’d always assumed it was because Nico still liked him. Now he realizes it was for another reason entirely and now that Nico knows that really wasn’t an issue, maybe they won’t be so awkward anymore.

“See you guys tomorrow,” Percy says as he hopes off the porch steps. Jason watches him walk away and feels a bit thankful to him for not saying something embarrassing. That is, until Percy turns around and calls, “Don’t mess up, Grace! I’m not helping you all over again!”

Nico laughs softly. Jason glares at Percy’s retreating back. “So that happened,” he says.

Nico smiles. “Yeah,” he says, “I can’t believe he went all the way into the woods at night just for… this.” He motions vaguely to the two of them. “He’s weird.”

“Weird,” Jason agrees. He swivels his body on the bench so he’s facing Nico. The light hanging above them shines in eyes for a few seconds before he looks away.

“So before we do anything,” he says, “I want to clear a few things up if that’s okay with you. I still don’t think I completely understand what happened this past week or so.”

“Yeah, sure,” Jason says. He’s watching him like a creep now but the best part is that he doesn’t even have to hide it anymore.

Nico shifts his skull ring around his finger. “So, uh, that day you and Percy went to Camp Jupiter, how come you didn’t take me with you?”

Well, it’s not like there’s any reason to hide anything now. “We went to see Frank so he could teach me Mythomagic,” Jason replies.

“But I thought you already learned that from him months ago. Isn’t that what you said?”

“I said I learned it from him,” Jason says slowly, “I didn’t specify when. I actually had a crash course from him only hours before the two of us first played it together.”

Nico squints his eyes in confusion. His eyelashes are so thick they completely shadow his eyes. “A crash course? Why would you do that?”

“Well, I sort of…” Jason laughs nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, “I sort of wanted to know what I was doing when I started to play with you, so… I didn’t want to seem like a complete noob.”

Nico blinks and then a smile slowly spreads across his face. “Well, that didn’t work, did it?”

Jason laughs. “No, I suppose not.”

“And what about the time Percy abandoned us in the lake? Did you really come along because you get bored and lonely without him?”

“Not even a little bit,” Jason answers, “Percy was planning to abandon us the whole time, which you probably guessed. He said we needed some ‘alone time’.” He rolls his eyes and Nico’s smile grows wider.

“So Percy’s been helping you all along?” Jason nods and Nico snorts. “Isn’t that ironic? He’s the whole reason this wasn’t even working.”

“Yeah,” Jason agrees, “And to think I made friends with Reyna for you.” Nico raises his eyebrows appraisingly and Jason backtracks. “I mean, not _just_ for you. I wanted to be friends with her for a long time, I just… only got to it when Percy mentioned you always got pissed with me because of _her_ so.” He shrugs.

“He’s right,” Nico says, “If there was ever a reason to make me doubt my feelings, it was probably how you treated her.”

Feelings. My feelings. Jason can’t help the grin that pulls at his lips. “Yeah,” he says stupidly.

“And what about when you came to the Underworld? You even brought Percy _there_.” Nico rolls his eyes. “Not that I don’t like him – it was just annoying how he was always with you.”

He looks so endearingly jealous for a while that Jason actually has to tuck his hands underneath his thighs to keep him from reaching across and touching him. “He was there for moral support,” he explains, “And also so I could confess to your dad.”

Nico frowns. “My dad?”

“Yeah. Percy’s logic was that if he heard it from someone other than me, he might go all ballistic and try to kill me.”

“Why would he do that?”

Jason shrugs. “He’s your dad. Makes sense for him to be protective, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t think he’d be that protective.”

Jason snorts. “Are you kidding? He actually threatened me with his godly powers when I was there. Scared the Jupiter out of me.”

Nico glances at him. “Really? I didn’t think he cared that much.”

Jason smiles softly. “He does. You should’ve heard him. He sounded about ready to debone me.”

Nico smiles for a second before his face slips into a contemplative expression. He sits up, holding up his hand. “So, wait – when he told me that thing about you never taking initiative…? That was… that was about…?” Jason nods and Nico’s hand falters. “Oh gods, my father’s a _matchmaker_.”

Jason bursts out laughing. “That sounds more like Percy but yeah, kind of.”

“So Percy really knew the whole time?” Nico asks. “That… you know…”

“Yeah,” Jason says, “He’s the one who helped me with it.”

“But then – yesterday during Capture the Flag – he kept telling me to go ask you who you liked and tell him who it turned out to be. If he already knew…?”

“He didn’t really want you to tell him, most probably,” Jason explains, “He just wanted me to confess to you.”

Nico blinks at him. “But – when he said that he had a suspicion as to who it was, I thought that meant he knew you liked him?”

“Uh, no, Nico. He knew I liked, you know,” he motions to Nico, “you.”

“Oh,” Nico says, “I thought for sure…”

Jason shrugs. “Yeah, well.” He takes his hands out from underneath his legs and leans forward a bit. “So – any more questions?”

Nico’s eyes focus on him and stay there long enough for Jason’s heart to go into overdrive. “One,” he answers, his gaze flitting between Jason’s lips and his eyes, “When you ran away yesterday – did you think I rejected you for Percy?”

“Well, yeah,” Jason admits, “What else was I supposed to think? That you liked me back and the only reason you stopped me was because you thought I liked Percy more? That’s kind of far-fetched, don’t you think?” 

“Not really,” Nico says, “I already told you I knew you liked guys. The only reason I suspected it in the first place was because of Percy. I suppose I did think that you sort of maybe kind of liked me too? I mean, we kind of flirted a lot, didn’t we?” He looks away and shrugs. “But I kept getting the feeling I might be some sort of substitute so…”

“Trust me, you’re not.”

“Yeah, well, I know that _now_ ,” Nico grumbles, pulling at his jacket sleeve, “Could’ve saved myself a lot of pain if you’d just stopped and listened to me yesterday.”

“That wasn’t exactly at the forefront of my mind, seeing as how I’d just mortally embarrassed myself. You could’ve just come to my cabin, you know.”

Nico opens his mouth to say something back and then ducks his head. “I did,” he says quietly, “I packed up my things and decided to shadow travel to Hazel – but I guess I wasn’t concentrating enough because the next thing I knew, I was in the shadows right next to your cabin.”

“Really?” Jason feels strangely excited by this new information, shuffling closer towards him. “I didn’t see you there.”

“Well, yeah. That’s because I saw you talking to Percy and I sort of…” he runs a hand through his hair sheepishly, “…left.”

He peeks up through his eyelashes and Jason just shakes his head at him. “Hey, I thought you just moved on quickly, okay?” Nico protests, “Obviously I didn’t think you had a chance with him – he and Annabeth are just conjoined at the mouth these days – but I thought you were just skipping from one person to the next and I didn’t want to get caught up in that.”

“You do know that I was shouting at him then?” Jason asks. “And shouting at him about _you_ at that?”

“Yeah, I figured. You shouldn’t have done that, you know.”

“If I’d known he would run into the woods as part of a hare-brained scheme, I wouldn’t have.”

Except maybe he would have. That hare-brained scheme’s the only reason he’s sitting here with Nico now. Maybe everything happened the way it did so it could turn out like this in the end. If that’s true, Jason thinks he might be okay with it. Scratch that, he’s _definitely_ okay with it.

Nico’s just smiling at him right now and Jason can’t help but smile back. His bangs still catch in his eyelids and the light hanging above makes his skin look pale and soft, like a marshmallow except not as edible and definitely not something Jason would like to impale on a stick and burn (he’s so romantic with his metaphors, isn’t he?). He feels Nico nudge Jason’s hand with his own and without thinking about it, Jason lets it slip into his. He’s taken off his (stupid black fingerless) gloves and his hand isn’t as small or warm or soft as Piper’s but it’s a whole new perfect.

“So,” Nico says, his smile soft. 

“So,” Jason repeats, trying hard not to let a dopey grin spread across his face. His heart feels like it wants to break out of his chest but in a good way. Nico leans forward so close, Jason can smell the scent of earth wafting off of him. He thinks maybe he should ask him how he always smells that way.

“Are you just going to sit there all day?” Nico says. “Because no offence but I’m kind of sleepy, so…” he shrugs dismissively like _I have better things to do so if you could just hurry up and kiss me, that’d be great._

And Jason’s never been one to keep someone waiting.

For all his nonchalance, Nico’s eyes almost bulge out of his head when Jason leans forward. Then he tilts his chin forward to meet Nico’s lips. Nico’s eyes glaze over and flutter shut only a second before Jason’s do.

The kiss is completely innocent and Jason doesn’t try to make it anything else. Nico’s lips are thin and warm underneath his and feel incredibly soft. His other hand comes up and sort of cradles Jason’s jaw and all thought sizzles out right then.

When he pulls away, Nico is flushed and blinking dumbly up at him. Jason finally gives into the dopey grin. 

“So does this mean we can give this a shot?” Jason asks, his voice sounding gravelly even to him.

Nico blinks one last time and then the dazed look disappears of his face as quickly as it had come. “Well, duh,” he rolls his eyes.

Jason laughs, straightening up. He keeps firm hold of Nico’s hand. “Do you want me to walk you to your cabin? It’s getting pretty late and you’re already sleepy, like you said.”

Nico looks down at their entwined hands. Jason wants to kiss the smile that spreads across his face. 

“I think I can stay awake for a few minutes,” Nico answers, brushing his hair back. “Just for a little while though.”

“Just for a little while,” Jason agrees, and then leans in.

Needless to say, they both need some work on their definition of ‘a little while’.

~*~

Jason’s still got a few loose ends to tie up the next day, no matter how much he wants to spend every moment with his boyfriend ( _yeah that’s right he said boyfriend, Nico di Angelo is his freaking_ boyfriend _he’s actually dating him now,_ what _a time to be alive friends_ ).

He finds Percy sitting on the pier with his legs dangling into the water, playing with the fish, making little levitating tubes of water for them to flit through. He smiles at Jason in greeting when he sits beside him.

“So,” Percy starts, letting the fish slide back into the lake., “Phase 7 was a success, huh?”

Jason raises his eyebrows. “Phase 7?”

“What do you think the whole deal with the running-away-into-the-woods was? Granted, the whole ant thing was kind of unexpected but let’s just act like it all worked the way I planned.”

Jason laughs. “Yeah, I guess Phase 7 was a success then. Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” Percy beams. “And what about you? Would’ve thought you’d be with Nico right now.”

“He’s having some quality time with Hazel over an IM,” Jason admits, “And anyway it gives me time to talk to you.”

Percy looks at him quizzically. “About what?”

“Yesterday. I’m really sorry about what I said. I hope you know I didn’t mean it – it was just a rush of the moment kind of thing.”

“I know,” Percy nods, “It’s fine, man. I forgive you. Go make out with your boyfriend.”

He gives Jason a playful shove but there’s still something stiff in it. Jason remembers Percy’s face yesterday when Jason had said that he and Nico were just a distraction to him and he knows he hit a chord. And Percy’s doing a very bad job at trying to appear indifferent. 

“You know you can shout at me, right?” Jason asks. “I get it, really. I shouted at you and hurt your feelings and then it turned out to be a stupid misunderstanding and in the end everything worked out fine for me and you didn’t even get anything out of it.”

“Sure I did,” Percy says. He molds a sphere of water between his hands, a clownfish swimming leisurely through it. “Nico’s happy now so that’s enough for me.”

Jason raises an eyebrow. “Uh…?”

Percy rolls his eyes at him. “Not _that_ way, you idiot. Gods, you’re so suspicious. I just meant that…” he shakes his head and faces the sphere again, “Annabeth said that the only reason I did any of this was because I felt like I owed something to Nico. Something to make up for the fact that I might have sort of screwed up his life the first time around.”

The comforting words _no not at all_ are right at the tip of his tongue but Jason says, “Maybe just a little bit.”

Percy nods like he expected Jason to agree. “I would’ve just waved it off except it was _Annabeth_. And Annabeth is almost always right. Plus, I sort of realized it made sense. I’ve never really stopped feeling guilty about all of that, you know. Well,” he glances at Jason, “not until last night.”

“Yeah,” Jason agrees, “I noticed. I think you and Nico will be fine now.”

Percy smiles. “Yeah, I think so too,” he says hopefully. The sphere of water descends into the reflection of the sky, merging with the rest of the lake. The clownfish nuzzles Percy’s bare feet for a while before swimming away.

“And yeah, you sort of offended me last night,” Percy continues, “But I know you didn’t mean it and I know it wasn’t true so I’ll get over it.” He peers at him. “ _You_ know it wasn’t true, don’t you?” 

“Yeah, man. And for the record, I really don’t mind being a distraction from your Tartarus problems. The gods know you need it.”

“Well, good,” Percy grins, “It’s a nice coping mechanism, you know. People.”

“Better than going to the Underworld, definitely,” Jason says, “But, you know, whatever works for him. I’m not going to force him to stay here if he has another nightmare. I think seeing his Underworld family is good for him.”

“Yeah, the guy’s got people who care about him all over the country. He just never notices it.”

Jason shrugs. “I dunno. I think he might be starting to.”

“Well, he has to now, doesn’t he? Seeing as how you spent all freaking night kissing the crap out of him.”

Blood rushes to Jason’s face and he shoves at his shoulder. “Dude!”

“Oh don’t even try, Grace, I saw his lips this morning. Is it just me or did you really rub a whole layer of skin off of his mouth?”

Jason groans and buries his head in his hands. “You are never going to change, are you?”

“Nope,” Percy laughs, and Jason hopes he never does.

They both sit back and watch as the sunlight glints off the lake, Percy making shapes and structures using the water while Jason tries to topple them with gusts of wind. After a while Nico – Jason’s _boyfriend_ , for those of you who don’t know – walks up and joins them, sitting on Jason’s other side. He slides his hand in his, shifts closer, and kicks Percy’s water Tower of Pisa over with one fast motion of his leg.

As Percy whines and Nico laughs, Jason remembers what Annabeth said to him almost twelve hours ago, about Nico and love and how it’ll happen if it’s meant to. 

It should come as a surprise to absolutely no one that Annabeth Chase is right once again.

He thinks that even if he and Nico aren’t perfect together yet, they’re off to a pretty good start. And Jason can’t wait to see where all of this goes.

So Jason slides his feet into the water and listens contentedly to his best friend and his boyfriend bicker like they’ve been doing this for ages. Percy nudges his foot away from his and Nico shifts himself closer. Jason can’t help the smile that breaks across his face.

And, yeah, if he’s going to be honest – it feels exactly coming home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys didn't really think I was going to break Jasico up, did you? You have no faith in me, friends. *shakes head in highly disappointed manner*  
> The story's technically finished now but the epilogue type chapter thingy will be up either tomorrow or the day after, seeing as how it's a lot shorter and easier to write (also I am trying to make up for the long wait for this one - sorry about that).  
> Shout-out to my friend Amel (gracefullass on tumblr) who predicted this ending waaay back in Chapter 2, although I'm sure she's not the only one (you can see the plot twists in this story coming at you from a mile away I swear to god).  
> Chapter title is from Kiss Me Slowly by Parachute because duh.


	9. The World Will Begin Exactly How It Ends

Percy’s hanging out with Nico and Jason when he sees them again.

They’re sitting close together on the seats encircling the sword-fighting arena, hand-in-hand as usual. It’s been about two weeks since the fateful night they finally kissed and Percy had spent days after that smiling smugly at Annabeth and constantly reminding her that she was wrong about Nico and he was right. 

“It was one time, Seaweed Brain. _One_ time you were right and I wasn’t.”

“Still doesn’t change the fact that you were wrong.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I would’ve seen it ages ago anyway, if I were paying attention. It makes sense. Last time Nico was jealous of someone, people thought they liked them too, remember?”

Percy had never thought of it that way but yeah, now that he did… “Wow. How does that happen _twice_? He should really work on that. That’s just weird.” 

It’s weeks later and Nico’s just come back from a long trip to Camp Jupiter which Hazel insisted on. Jason had gone all the way to the other camp to pick him up the day before and had come back looking decidedly paler than he had when he’d left. Apparently Hazel had lectured him about taking care of her little (older) brother and when Jason had tried to sass her, had ripped him a new one. What Percy wouldn’t give to have seen that.

Nico, on the other hand, had come back with a badly knitted scarf that his sister made for him, another Mythomagic deck courtesy of Frank and a pair of dangerous-looking brass knuckles that Reyna bought him. Apparently if you have a huge three-sided misunderstanding with two other people, almost-make out with one, get upset about it and shadow travel across the country to get away from them and accidentally trigger a certain someone to stage a whole blow-out involving giant ants and bug machines, your family and friends will become uber-nice to you and buy and/or make tons of gifts for you.

So yeah, long story short, Percy knows what he’s going to do when he’s bored from now on.

Even though Hazel lectured Jason enough to make him think she wasn’t happy about him and Nico dating, Percy knows for a fact she is. She IMed him only an hour or two after raining on Jason’s parade, gushing to Percy about how cute the two of them looked together when Jason had come to pick Nico up, and that whenever she left them in a room alone, she always stuck around and listened to what they were saying and giggled to herself about how cheesy they were. Frank was in the background during the whole IM, rolling his eyes at her antics, but Percy could tell he thought it was adorable.

Frank and Hazel aren’t the only people who approve of the whole Jason-and-Nico thing. Barely a day after they officially started dating, a certain sour-faced ghost had appeared in Jason’s cabin while Percy was there busy being as annoying as possible.

“Master Hades has a message for you,” Lagos had said, looking straight as Jason.

Jason had exchanged a curious look with Percy. “Uh, okay? Go on.”

Lagos had proceeded to say in a complete monotone, “I suppose I approve but that doesn’t change anything. He is still going to come to my palace at least once a month and if you try to stop him, I will end you. If he has nightmares, give him hot chocolate, the good kind – Lagos will give you the recipe. You’re expected to come along with him next time he comes here – and for your own sake, look presentable, boy. And don’t make the mistake of forgetting what I told you in person.”

Jason had cleared his throat, “Well, okay, I…”

“And please,” Lagos had continued in the same monotone, “Stop sacrificing sausage-topped pizza during mealtimes to me as appeasement. I hate sausages and it will just make me dislike you. Mushrooms, on the other hand, are nice. You might want to remember that.”

Then Lagos had paused once again. Jason and Percy had just stared at him until he’d broken the silence by saying, “Do you want the hot chocolate recipe now?”

In case anyone was wondering, the hot chocolate tastes heavenly and Percy sometimes fakes bad dreams so someone (Annabeth) has to make it for him. 

Nico hasn’t had any nightmares so far but Jason’s prepared himself for it like he’s prepping for a war. Nico just rolls his eyes at Jason’s drama, even though Jason has a point – it’s not like Nico won’t have any nightmares now that he’s got a boyfriend. It’s probably only a matter of time until the next one hits but at least now its after-effects won’t be as damaging – now that Jason is reason enough for Nico to stay at camp, surrounded by people who’ll help him through his nightmares.

Now, days later, Nico’s got his new Mythomagic deck that Frank bought for him spread out on the stands, pointing out his favorite cards to the other two and gesturing wildly as he talks about attack points and strategies and the new game rules that come along with the cards. Jason’s got a sickeningly-in-love expression on his face that Percy’s been gagging at for the past few weeks. 

They’ve all three of them got their heads bent over the cards as Nico talks. Percy isn’t really even paying attention but whatever Nico’s saying is apparently so hilarious that Jason thinks it’s necessary for him to do that _HA HA HA OH MY GOD NICO SO FUNNY_ laugh.

Halfway through one of Jason’s _NICO STAHP I CAN’T HANDLE YOUR INTENSELY ENTERTAINING JOKES_ guffaws, Percy shoves his hand into his jeans pocket and immediately feels some sort of card paper inside.

The thing with Percy is that he always puts things in his pockets and then forgets they exist. He’s found all kinds of weird things in his pockets with no explanation how they got there – from a little plastic Shrek toy to someone’s tooth (when he’d asked around, no one had been missing a tooth and no one had put one in his pocket – it was one of the biggest mysteries of his life, right alongside how Mr. Krabs even managed to have a whale for a daughter).

So he’s prepared to see anything when he pulls the thing out of his pocket. He can see it’s a Mythomagic card but it’s only when he smooths it out that he realizes it’s a Poseidon one.

“Ohhhh,” he says, remembering. 

Nico and Jason look up. “What?” they say at the same time.

Nico’s eyes focus on the back of the card in Percy’s hand. “Percy, is that one of yours? I didn’t know you played.”

“I don’t, really,” Percy says, “But I’m lucky enough to find extremely rare Mythomagic cards in my _very own closet_ while you’re stuck with a million Minotaur cards.”

Nico raises an eyebrow. “Extremely rare?”

Percy hands him the card. “Feast your eyes and burn with jealousy.”

It takes both Nico and Jason a while to look over the card, which is understandable. It’s probably been through hell tucked in the pocket of Percy’s jeans for weeks. It’s got crease marks everywhere, is ripped, and its layers look like they’re falling apart. But that just makes it more look antique or whatever, right?

Nico’s eyes widen. “Oh my gods.”

Percy smiles proudly. “Yup.”

“A Poseidon card!” Jason says excitedly. “That’s awesome!”

“Not _just_ a Poseidon card,” Percy says, and then pulls the other two out with a flourish. They’re kind of stuck together by an old piece of gum in one corner but he separates them after a lot of difficulty – gods, they’re really _glued_ together, aren’t they? – and holds them up. “See? Zeus and Hades too.”

“Oh my gods!” Nico cries out, snatching them out of Percy’s hands.

His reaction is even better than expected. “Don’t worry, Nico,” Percy says haughtily. “Someday when you’re a Mythomagic master like me, you too can…”

“These are _mine_ , Percy,” Nico interrupts. He says it so decisively it almost catches Percy off-guard.

“Hey, no!” Percy protests, “You can’t just steal my cards. Jason, control your boyfriend.”

“I’m not stealing them from you,” Nico says, looking down reverently at the cards, “These _are_ mine. You said you found these in your closet?”

“Yeah. What does that have to do with anything?”

“I lost three Big Three cards in your cabin when I was ten,” Nico says, “And I’m one hundred percent sure these are the ones.”

Percy frowns. “You’re just making this up. Jason, tell him not to make stuff up.”

Jason raises his eyebrows at Nico like _I love you and all but Percy is your problem sorry not sorry._ “I’m not making this up,” Nico answers, “How do you think they even ended up there?”

“I don’t know,” Percy shrugs. “Do _you_?”

“Yes, I do, as a matter of fact. Remember when you went on that quest back then to free Artemis and save Annabeth?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Well, the day after you guys left I was playing Mythomagic in your cabin after lights out. I had my whole deck along with these cards.” He waves them in Percy’s face. “But then I heard the harpies outside so I panicked and fled. And the next day when I went through my deck, I knew I’d lost these ones. I retraced my steps and all, and I even checked in your cabin, but then Chiron saw me in there and told me I shouldn’t go in there.” He shakes his head, annoyed. “I _knew_ I should’ve checked in the closet. The harpies must’ve swept the cards in there while cleaning up.”

It all checks out but Percy just snorts. “Sure, likely story.”

“It’s true!”

“Oh yeah? So it’s just a coincidence that it was the cards of the _Big Three_ – and all three of them too – that you lost? Come on, Nico.”

Nico frowns down at the cards in his hands. “It _is_ a coincidence, actually. That’s weird.” His eyes dart between Jason and Percy curiously but then Percy makes a grab for the cards so he has to shift his attention to keeping them out of his reach.

“Nico! Do you know how much money I could get if I sold these off?”

“You’re doing this all for _money_?”

“Just gimme the cards!”

“They’re _my_ cards, Percy.”

“Finders keepers, losers weepers.”

“What are you, twelve?”

“You can’t use that line if you’re twelve yourself.”

“I’m fourteen!”

“What’s the difference?”

“Two years, duh.”

“Wait, hold on,” Jason holds up his hands, apparently deciding to speak. “Why were you playing in Percy’s cabin after lights out in the first place?”

Nico hides the cards behind his back to keep them away from Percy and then says, “Well I was having those nightmares then, wasn’t I? So I couldn’t sleep at night and when I tried to play in the Hermes cabin, someone always woke up and told me to go back to sleep.” He turns to Percy. “And _your_ cabin was my second choice, for obvious reasons.”

Jason turns at Percy too, giving him a look like _Maybe you should let him keep them._ And gods, Percy _hates_ those obvious reasons. He _hates_ them.

Whatever. They’re stupid cards anyway. They didn’t even get Poseidon’s face right.

“Fine,” he says, folding his arms, and tries not to smile when Nico cries, “Yes!” and brings the cards close to his face to stare at them adoringly. “You’d better remember I did this for you for the rest of your life. If I ever need you to do me a favor, you’re obligated to do it now. In fact, if I asked you to murder someone right now, your only response should be to ask me with what weapon. I hope you’re aware of this.”

“They’re just cards, Percy,” Jason rolls his eyes, and Nico proceeds to gasp so powerfully, Percy actually feels the air being sucked away from him.

“Just cards?” Nico cries, eyes widening. “ _Just cards_? Jason, are you kidding? They’re the _Big Three_ cards. If you have all three of them – okay, look, let me explain this to you…”

He twists his whole body so he can face Jason and then starts rapid-fire talking about the cards all over again, laying them delicately on the stands and touching them more tenderly than Percy’s ever seen him touch Jason. Jason actually looks kind of jealous – and resigned to his fate of listening to Nico blab on about Mythomagic for the rest of the day.

“Anyway,” Percy jumps up, thanking the gods Nico’s not making _him_ listen. “Do you guys know where Leo is? Chiron asked me to give him a message.”

“Probably in his cabin if not in Bunker Nine,” Jason tells him miserably. Nico doesn’t even look up or break his sentence, just grabs Jason’s face and points it down at the cards again.

“But _Nico_ ,” Jason starts whining.

Nico just holds up a finger to tell him to shut up while still talking. Jason belts out a loud groan and drops his forehead onto Nico’s shoulder, but Nico doesn’t even react, which Percy is thankful for. He’s had to suffer through way too much PDA from the both of them – he’d accidentally walked in on one of their make-out sessions once and had the misfortune of seeing their tongues touching – and just _ew._ That was something he’d never wanted to see, especially because Jason’s tongue looks like a big pink slug.

Percy leaves the two of them and heads to the Hephaestus cabin. He’s a little annoyed Nico stole his cards from him – and yeah, he is _so_ not buying that little noodle’s story about the cards being his – but at least he owes Percy now. Percy’s not sure what he’s going to get out of him though. Embarrassing stories about Jason, probably. Percy refuses to believe Jason doesn’t wear some kind of height booster things in his shoes – the guy is just too tall not to.

Leo’s the only one in his cabin when Percy walks in. He’s sitting cross-legged on his bed, surrounded by blueprints and diagrams. Something about it all – the way he’s hunched over, the surprisingly intense look in his eyes as they dart from one sketch to the other, the quiet way he’s muttering to himself – reminds him all of Annabeth.

“Hey, Leo.”

Leo looks up. He’s got his thumbnail between his teeth and his leg is jiggling up and down nervously. “Oh hey, Percy,” he says distractedly, “You need something?”

Percy takes a seat. “What’re you doing?”

“Nothing much,” Leo mutters, “Trying to work out a few kinks in my project. Annabeth suggested some ideas but – I dunno, it _works_ in theory but it’s not really practical and…” He shakes his head. “Anyway, how come you’re here?”

“Chiron sent me. Said that we can’t really get your bug machine back because it’d be too dangerous to go down into that anthill but if you want to make another one, he can give you time off of classes for a few days, and a few of your cabinmates too if you’ll need their help.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He was really impressed with the Beetle.”

He’s not going to mention the fact that he was the one who told Chiron that it’s not fair Leo’s machine got dragged off and destroyed in that whole fiasco. Leo had complained a lot about it in the past weeks and everyone had thought he was just being annoying but Percy thinks he would be genuinely sad if something he’d worked so hard on was destroyed so easily. 

Leo just shrugs though. “Nah, man, it’s fine. I mean, I’d like to work on it but I’ve got more important projects, right?”

“Right,” Percy says, leaning forward, eyes roving over a whole sheet full of meaningless calculations. “Uh… is this what you need to get back to Ogygia?”

Leo nods. Percy supposes the whole Calypso deal should be awkward between the two of them but they already went through the whole awkward phase. Then the jealous phase, the angry phase and then the apologetic phase too. He knows he’ll probably have to go through all of that once Leo gets Calypso back but that doesn’t mean he’s not looking forward to Leo getting her off that stupid island. The gods know it’s about time (or, more correctly, they don’t, seeing as how they’re the reason she’s stuck there in the first place).

“It’s really not a deal of getting there,” Leo says, “More like finding out _where_ I’m supposed to go exactly. Everything after that is easy.”

“I don’t know,” Percy says, “When I was there, I didn’t exactly see any location markers.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Leo says, a deep crease appearing between his eyebrows, “Just sea on every side.”

“Don’t worry,” Percy reassures him, “You’ll find it.”

“Hopefully. Probably going to need your help, though.”

Percy’s eyebrows shoot up. “ _My_ help?”

“Well, duh,” Leo rolls his eyes, “You’re the only demigod other than me who’s been there so you’re the only person who knows what it looks like.”

“But that still doesn’t mean I know where it is.”

“Doesn’t matter, man. Just knowing what it looks like is help enough. I mean, you spent like two weeks there. You have to know _something_.”

Percy frowns. Has Leo been holding onto him as a hope this whole time? “Well, I’m not sure I’ll be that big a help. Why don’t you ask Hephaestus? He goes there all the time, doesn’t he?”

Leo rubs at his eyes. He looks a lot more tired these days and Percy realizes that while he and Jason were caught up with their whole wooing Nico act, Leo was worrying about Calypso the whole time. 

“Yeah, but he won’t spill,” Leo says, “You think you can talk to him or something? You did something for him once, didn’t you? He might listen to you.”

“I’m not sure,” Percy says skeptically. “If he didn’t tell his own son, I doubt he’d tell me.”

“Oh,” Leo says glumly, turning back to his papers. “Okay.”

“Uh, but…” Percy says hurriedly, “But maybe we won’t even need to ask for his help. He’s not the only one who goes to Ogygia regularly, you know.”

Leo looks up. “What are you talking about?”

“Hermes. He’s been there tons of times. And he’s a lot more cooperative with me than your dad. I think maybe if I asked him nicely enough…”

Leo stares at him for a while. “You would do that?” 

“Yeah, of course. I don’t think he’s just going to hand us that information though.”

“I just need a hint, that’s all,” Leo says. “And I need for him not to try to put his foot in it and say we’re not allowed to get her out.”

“I don’t think he’d do that,” Percy says. “He’s cool – for a god.”

“And you’d ask him?” Leo says, a smile slowly spreading across his face.

“Well yeah,” Percy grins. “If I can help, why not?”

Leo gives him a hundred-watt smile – a complete one-eighty from his mood a couple of minutes ago – and then shifts over and pats the opposite end of the bed with his foot. “Get up here then,” he invites Percy. 

“What for?” Percy asks, but joins him on the bed anyway.

Leo pushes a map of the world towards him. “Okay so look,” he says animatedly, “A lot of people think that Ogygia doesn’t even exist in our world or our universe or whatever, so it’s not possible to get there unless you can, like, travel through space and time. _But_ the one and only hint my dad did give me was that Ogygia does exist as an actual island – it’s just that it’s so completely surrounded by Mist that mortals miss it and as for demigods, Calypso’s curse takes care of that, doesn’t it?”

Percy nods, trying to keep up to what Leo’s saying (he talks really quickly – kind of like Nico when he’s excited, oddly enough) and looks down at the map. Leo’s circled a few islands that Percy guesses he thinks might be potential islands. Already Percy can see a few of them can’t be, though – they’re too close to other islands, close enough that you’d be able to see the other islands from them, and you couldn’t see land on any side from Ogygia. 

“The way I figure it, it’s one of those,” Leo says, “What do you think?”

“I think we can definitely cross a few out,” Percy says, “But Leo – you do know you’re going to need a lot more help from a lot more people than just me, right?”

“I know,” Leo agrees. “At least it’s a start. Plus, you’re sort of the only person who wants to get her off the island for something other than me, so you’ll try to help me the hardest out of anyone I know.” Percy raises his eyebrows at him and Leo clarifies, “You want to apologize to her, don’t you? I mean, no offence, but you kinda do have things to apologize for.”

Percy couldn’t agree more. Jeez, why does he feel guilty about so many people? If only he’d treated them better when he was fourteen.

“Emotionally invested, once again,” he sighs.

“Plus, if you found di Angelo a boyfriend, this shouldn’t be too hard, right? So what do you say?” 

And yeah, he _just_ got out of a whole matchmaking fiasco and all – but Leo’s apparently been practicing his puppy dog eyes because he is _working_ it. Also, now that Percy thinks about it, maybe if he helps Leo and Calypso find each other, she might decide to spare him once she gets off the island. Or let him keep most of his limbs, at least. Maybe if he’s lucky, they might even become friends.

He can already see Annabeth rolling her eyes. “ _Again_ , Percy?” she’d say exasperatedly. “You _just_ got out of the whole blue bananas thing!”

Well, it’s not like he can just dismiss a friend in need, can he? You know, with the whole excessive loyalty thing. And no offence to Nico or Jason, but this one is kind of more important than getting the two of them together – Calypso missed the release of Finding Nemo, he’ll be damned if he lets her miss the release of Finding Dory too.

Leo’s looking at him with raised eyebrows. “Well? You think you can help me?”

His grin is wide and hopeful – maybe a little pleading too, if Percy’s going to be honest. For some reason, Percy thinks back to the moonlace plant Calypso had given him years ago, the one that still blooms on his fire escape. He thinks that if Leo turns out to be a cool partner-in-crime, he might give him some of the moonlace as a reminder.

Or maybe he’ll give it to him either way. Percy’s not one to deny people the things they deserve. And that includes helping them get their immortal cursed girlfriends off of secluded enchanted islands.

The rest of his summer was going to be boring anyhow. If this is going to be anywhere near as awesome as Operation Blue Bananas was, he wants in.

Slowly, Percy smiles. “Definitely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand it's done!  
> (Chapter title from Heaven by Angels and Airwaves)  
> I hope you guys liked the story as much as I loved writing it.  
> There's a lot of scenes and parts I wrote up but ultimately didn't end up adding into the finished story. If you want to read them, I'll probably post them on my tumblr (link's in my bio and my URL is the same username here). Oh and if you liked the story, come and say hi on tumblr, maybe even drop a prompt because apparently I take prompts now.  
> Thanks for all your encouragement and kudos and such, YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST. Seriously I love reading your comments even though I never reply (also just ignore LadyLia's comments, friends, she doesn't know what she says half the time). Oh right also credit to LadyLia for giving me the story idea in the first place.  
> But yeah anyway thank you for being so awesome throughout the whole story. Let's hope any of my future fics aren't crappy enough to put you guys off


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